The Changing Destinies Series: Book Three
by E4me100
Summary: Aka "Staying Strong." The Fellowship's been split apart, and Erin and Kaia are now separated. Erin's worried that the fate of Middle-Earth is falling apart in her hands, and Kaia's biggest challenge is escaping her new home with her life. With both old and new faces surrounding them, they must find the strength to hold themselves together in the war. Self-insert. Pairings: Read it!
1. Traveling the Plains

_When last we left off, Erin and Kaia had joined the Fellowship of the Ring and embarked on the same adventure that Erin had fallen in love with as a child. Upon arriving in Lothlórien after the fall of Gandalf, Erin and Haldir finally became a couple, but the same night, Legolas confessed to Kaia that he loved Erin as well. Not wanting to come between them, they both decided to keep it a secret. Kaia was assigned a mysterious task from Galadriel after looking in the Mirror, and at the Battle of Amon Hen, both Boromir and Merry were shot, leaving Erin to force Kaia into the hands of the Uruk-Hai in an attempt to get her to take his place. Now the Fellowship has been split, and this tale will tell of Erin and Kaia's adventures while separated from each other._

**Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters, places, or objects from Lord of the Rings.**

The Changing Destinies Series: Book Three

Staying Strong

Erin's POV

So much running.

SO.

MUCH.

RUNNING.

I'd never been an athlete to begin with, so how I even lasted a day moving at almost a full sprint is beyond me. I guess the first day I was just more determined to get to Kaia and Pippin because we started hunting them just after we were attacked. I don't know. Either way, I hadn't wanted to become a burden to the guys by slowing them down, so I tried to keep myself at the top of my game by keeping a steady pace and occasionally sipping water. We literally ran all day and all night without stopping. The closest thing I got to a rest was when Aragorn slowed our pace substantially a few times, but even then we were still moving at a steady jog. For awhile, I had been trying to keep myself distracted from the aching of my leg muscles by weakly humming the song that played during their running montage in _The Two Towers_, but that only left me even more out of breath than normal, so I was reduced to just silently imagining it playing in my head.

At about...oh, I don't know...seven in the morning or so, Aragorn finally brought us to a halt. Apparently he had finally gotten tired of running. "We can rest here," he said, casually sitting down on a rock. "We will begin running again within the hour."

"Great," I said, stumbling dizzily past him. "I just...I need...Oh, gosh..." After failing to talk like a normal human being, I used the last ounce of strength that I had to drag myself behind a large rock, where I promptly doubled over and emptied my stomach onto the ground.

After about ten minutes of that fun, I walked out from behind the rock, trying to look as normal and perky as possible. None of them fell for it, and Legolas was the first one to speak up as I made my way over to them. "Erin! Are you alright?"

"Never better," I said. I sat down on the rock next to Aragorn, then gripped my head to help stop everything from spinning. Aragorn gave me a skeptical look.

"It's no use running if you can't even walk straight, lass," Gimli scolded.

I sighed and shook my head. "I don't want to slow you guys down, though. If we can't catch them just because I'm a slow runner...I'd never forgive myself."

"You should at least stop drinking so much," Aragorn said, handing me my already half-empty flask of water. "That may help."

I laid down on my back, staring up at the fluffy white clouds that dotted the blue sky. "Probably. Honestly, my legs feel like rubber. That's probably not good, either, is it?"

Aragorn chuckled at this. "That is not such a major problem. How is your arm?"

I glanced down at the makeshift bandage that he had wrapped around my right bicep, where the Uruk had cut me with his nasty blade. As soon as I had told Aragorn about it, he had stopped and cleaned it out for me, wrapping it with a clean piece of cloth. "It's still not infected, as far as I know."

"Let us know if you feel sick," he said, and I nodded. I wasn't an idiot.

We sat there, casually talking for about fifteen minutes or so, when Aragorn sighed. "We should keep moving. The longer we wait, the more distance our enemy puts between us."

I sat up, but I still didn't even have the energy to get up and walk, let alone run. "No way. I'm sorry, but I just...I can't." I felt so bad, but I knew it would be pointless to try and push myself to the point of getting myself too sick. I could handle throwing up every now and again, but not if it got worse by me trying to play hero.

They each looked at each other for awhile, before Legolas finally walked over and said "Get on my back."

I blinked. "What? A piggyback ride?"

"Yes," he said, smiling. "Come on, we don't have all day."

I looked over at Aragorn, who shrugged, then nodded as if to say 'That'll work.' So I climbed up on Legolas' back and wrapped my arms around his neck, careful to not choke him. I cried out in surprise when he jerked me up a little bit more and grabbed my legs tightly. Then, out of nowhere, he said "You are lightweight. This will not be too difficult."

I laughed. "What, did you think I weighed three hundred pounds? I've probably lost some lately because of the small meals and constant moving around."

Though I couldn't see his face, I could tell that he was smiling. "You know I did not mean it like that."

"How far do you think you can carry her?" Aragorn said.

"As far as I need to," he replied.

I smiled at his heroism. "I just need to rest for a bit and get some of my energy back. Then I'll be able to run again."

Aragorn looked up at me, laughed at the sight of my eyes peeking over his head, and then started running again, Legolas following him. He wasn't able to run side by side with the ranger like before, but he was still going faster than I had been before. The rhythmic bouncing that I got from his feet hitting the ground soon had me feeling incredibly tired, and I hadn't realized up until then how positively drained I actually was. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep on the back of my best friend, who didn't complain once as he carried me across the plains.

oOo

Kaia's POV

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I thought was _Please God, oh please tell me that being carried around by a nasty Uruk-Hai was a dream and I'm gonna open my eyes to see the rest of the Fellowship...and some food. _

Only one of those things was partially true, because when I did look around, I saw Pippin on the back of the Uruk next to me. Both of us were bouncing around as the monsters holding us ran along, their steel boots smashing into the soft ground. I lifted my head, and saw nothing but yellowed grass and rocks. No different from the last time I looked around. Oh, joy. "FML," I whispered as I lowered my head again.

I was hungry, cold, and thirsty. My body still ached from the hell that we'd gone through the other day by the river, and now some of my muscles were cramping for being in the same position for so long. To top it all off, I still had Uruk blood caked all over my clothes, I probably smelled like a dead animal carcass (though that's still better than the guy who was carrying me), and I felt so disgusting and grimy that I was seriously considering knocking myself out so that I wouldn't have to deal with any of this shit anymore.

I was also pissed. Incredibly pissed, in fact. If Erin had been right in front of me, right now, I would've punched her. What the hell had she been thinking? That it was okay to shove me out into the open of these nasty things, and then keep herself safe by hiding? And all she had said to me was 'make sure the Ents go to war.' Like I knew what that was supposed to mean! What the fuck is an Ent?

Anyway, you get my point. I was mad. And I didn't even know why they'd captured me, either. I'd been thinking about that a lot lately. They knew that I was a strong fighter, and if it wasn't for the thick rope that bound my hands, I'd be beating the shit out of all of them right now. I was a threat to them. So why did they want me? I figured that they were taking us to their master, who I'm pretty sure went by the name Saruman, but...why? I had so many questions, I just didn't...

I sighed and tried to not retch at the stench of the other Uruks as they shuffled along, keeping quiet so I didn't start anything. Now wasn't the time.

After about five minutes of silence, I heard my short little companion whisper my name from behind me. "Kaia! Kaia, are you awake?"

I turned my head so I could see him. "Yeah, I'm fine. You?"

"Could be better," he said. I managed a smile at that. After another moment, he asked "...Do you think they're gonna do anything to us?"

"I don't know," I said to him. "I-"

"'EY! Shut up over there! Yew two ain't to be talkin'!" shouted an Uruk with a deep, but oddly nasal voice.

"I'll talk if I want to, asshole!" I shouted back without thinking.

Suddenly, the procession stopped, and I rolled my eyes. _Great. Now you've gotten yourself into trouble. Good job, Kaia. _The Uruk that was leading us slowly walked back to me, his beady grey eyes staring me down from his flat face. He seriously did look like he'd been thrown up against a window or something. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here. A bratty little wench...who thinks she's got the whole world revolvin' round her." The rest of the Uruk laughed cruelly, and I glared back at him as he reached forward and gripped a meaty claw tightly around my chin, the laughter stopping immediately. "Well, guess what? _I'm _the one in charge here. So you'd best not be causin' trouble, or we'll stop bein' so nice to ya. Saruman said you were to be unspoiled, but not unharmed." His eyes glittered with lust at this last part, and I internally flinched. "So shut up and stop running your trap!" With that, he drew back his hand and brutally smacked me across the face. "And be kinder to your superiors." He walked away, heading back to the front of the pack.

It took all I had not to cuss him out, but I knew it wasn't worth it when I couldn't even reach the weapons on my belt. That was my only comfort...that I still had my weapons on me. They hadn't dared to touch those.

A moment later, the line started moving again, and I tried to get my head resting comfortably against the back of my carrier's neck. _It'll take a miracle to get us out of this one._

oOo

After that little incident, Pippin and I didn't dare to try and sneak in another conversation. Both of us were smarter than that. I slept on and off for most of the journey, as did Pippin. At one point, when he was asleep and I was awake and daydreaming, the line stopped again, and I craned my neck over my captor's head to see why. I couldn't see who was at the front of the line, but by the way he spoke, I assumed it was an Orc. His voice wasn't quite deep enough to be an Uruk-Hai. "You're late. Our master grows impatient! He wants the Shire-rat, now, and the woman, too!" My brow furrowed at the mention of me, and at that point I subtly lowered my head and tried to look like I was asleep so that I wouldn't get in trouble for overhearing something.

All were quiet as their leader responded in a gravelly, impatient tone. "I don't take orders from Orc maggots. Saruman will have his prizes..._We _will deliver them."

The Orcs made noises of irritation, and I thought the conversation was over until the Orc leader spoke up again. "At least give us the girl-"

"Enough!" The Uruk roared again. "She stays with us."

"She ain't no use to you!"

"She has information that Saruman wants." I frowned in my mind. _What?_ "If she can tell him the enemy's next move, then he will be able to crush them without mercy." The others all snickered and made noises of satisfaction, but I was still confused. _But...I don't know anything! Oh God, they must've gotten me confused with Erin. _

"It would make more sense to deliver her to The Eye directly."

"But it is an _order _to take her to Orthanc, and that's where she'll go," the Uruk leader growled. "Along with the Halfling." At that point, the conversation ended, and I opened my eyes to see Pippin doing the same.

_"Did you catch all that?" _I mouthed. He nodded. I was about to say more, when suddenly the captain spoke up again.

"What is it? What do you smell?"

There was a pause, and then another deep voice spoke up. "...Man flesh."

"They've picked up our trail!" the captain said, cursing.

"Aragorn..." Pippin whispered in realization.

_And where Aragorn goes, _I thought, _Erin, Legolas, and Gimli are sure to follow. _I wasn't sure if I should be excited or irritated that she was coming to save me from the mess that she'd purposely gotten me into.

"LET'S MOVE!" someone shouted, and the Uruks began running along again, this time faster than before. I glanced over at Pippin to see him rip the leaf clip off of his Lórien cloak with his teeth and spit it on the ground.

I frowned in his direction. "What was that for?"

"A sign," he whispered. "To help them."

I nodded and looked forward again to see the band of Orcs from Mordor joining our party. _This should be interesting, _I thought as one of them eyed me warily.

oOo

Erin's POV

"I'm running in the rain...just running in the rain...what a miserable feeling...I wish it would stop!" I quietly sung my parody of the song as we jogged along through the squishy, muddy plains. We'd gotten caught in a storm, but Aragorn told us we couldn't afford to stop and look for shelter. So we'd decided to slow our pace down slightly and keep going. I had gotten enough strength back and Legolas had stopped carrying me a few minutes ago. He ran alongside of me, laughing as I sang.

"Only you would think to sing at a time like this," he said.

I looked up at him. He was absolutely soaked from head to toe, just like me, with mud splashing up on his boots. "It makes the situation a little brighter, don't you think?"

He nodded. "Yes, I suppose it does."

Suddenly, I got a brilliant and crazy idea. "And you know what makes it even better? This!" With that, I ran farther ahead of him and started spinning around slowly as I ran, spreading my arms wide and tilting my head towards the angry sky. "I'm spinning in the rain! Just spinning in the rain! What an insane feeling! I like doing this!" I laughed, and could hear both Legolas and Aragorn laughing along as I grinned and spun around again. For my next trick, I got a running start, and then did a cartwheel. Well...I tried to do a cartwheel. It ended up being the worst cartwheel in the history of cartwheels, and ended up with me slipping and falling to the ground, though thankfully not in a super muddy area.

I picked myself up and wiped the wet grass off of my hands as Legolas came up to meet me. "What are you doing?"

"Making things more entertaining," I said simply. "You try it! Cartwheels are fun!"

"I do not know how to do one," he smiled.

"Oh, it would be easy for you. All you have to do," I said, still running along, "is just get a running start, then lean forward and flip your feet up over your head with your hands on the ground. Then you just continue to tilt in the same direction until you land on your feet again." I tried to show him again, but still failed. "Kind of like that, except my feet only ever go a couple inches off of the ground."

Legolas laughed. "It does not sound hard."

"Do it!" I grinned. "It's so fun!"

He looked at me oddly for a moment, then rolled his eyes and ran out so that he was ahead of me. I noticed that Aragorn was kind of running backwards so that he could watch. Legolas did as I instructed, and completed an almost-perfect cartwheel with a decent landing.

I caught up with him and beamed. "You did it!"

He was laughing again. "You are right, it is very fun." He quickly did another one, and I smiled, following his lead, but failing again. Pretty soon, we were running and flipping all over the place. People would've thought we were some kind of traveling circus if they'd seen us. Eventually, we stopped, and Legolas and I were running side by side again. "I like doing cartwheels now."

My grin widened even more. "You know what we gotta do now, right?" He looked at me curiously. "We gotta get Gimli to do it."

At this, the elf burst out laughing more than ever, and almost slipped in a patch of mud. I switched to running backwards to yell at the dwarf, who was behind all of us. "HEY! GIMLI! COME HERE!"

**A/N: And there it is! :D The first chapter of Book Three in the Changing Destinies Series! I realize that this one's a bit short, and I apologize. I just felt like ending it on a funny note this time. XD The image of short little Gimli doing cartwheels with his big beard flying everywhere makes me lol. ^^**


	2. Guess Where Kaia and Pippin Are Going?

**A/N: Hi guys! :D I'm back from camp, and man...was it fun! I made a ton of new friends there, had a bunch of fun, and to top it all off, I really felt God working in me and in others throughout the ten days I was up there. :3 (To be honest, I wish I didn't have to write in all the cursing for Kaia, but it's part of her character and personality. I have to.) I even became friends with a girl from France who doesn't speak much English and is visiting the USA for the summer! :D It was really awesome! **

**In other news, I didn't really have time to write much for this fanfic while I was away. The only thing I managed to get done was this chapter's first scene, and that was done on the car ride home. XD I'll probably have to rewatch _The Two Towers _sometime to get back in the LotR mood. ;) Hope you enjoy this update after the break! :D**

Staying Strong: Chapter Two

Kaia's POV

I winced and shot a nasty glare at my Uruk captor as I was roughly dropped on the ground. Pippin landed next to me a second later, spitting dirt and grass out of his mouth from a faceplant. The Uruk above us spat at our faces before sneering and walking off. As soon as he was out of earshot, I groaned. "Goddamn, I want to punch him so badly right now."

Pippin didn't look angry like me. He just looked nervous...and sorta hopeless. "...Kaia," he whispered, so as not to attract the attention of the other Uruk-Hai around us, "Do you really think they're going to save us? Aragorn and the others, I mean?"

I didn't answer immediately. In all honesty, I'd been asking myself that same question a lot lately. Now that Erin wasn't around to supply information, I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. All I knew about _Lord of the Rings _from here on out was that the Fellowship was split (though I didn't know who went with whom or anything), there were a few more epic battles here and there...Gollum came into the story eventually, and then...Sauron's killed. That's it. Now that I thought about it, Erin was good to have around as a friend. Sure, she couldn't tell me about some stuff, but she'd at least reassure me that everything was going as it should, or make me aware if something wasn't right. And now she was...God knows where, possibly alone (though I'd bet good money she was with Legolas, at least), and to top it all off, she was being hunted by Saruman and didn't even know it.

For the first time since she'd pushed me out of hiding back at Amon Hen, I felt a pang of sympathy for her...and I missed her. I sighed and put a hand to my head. "Well...at the very least, Aragorn's following us. And where he goes, Legolas and Gimli will likely follow, which means Erin would tag along, too."

Pippin looked at me skeptically. "You sound like you're trying to convince yourself more than me."

I merely nodded. "Yeah, I know. To be honest...I'm not really sure of anything anymore."

"What about Frodo and Sam? And the Ring? Are they okay?"

I looked at the little redhead sadly. "I'm sorry, Pip, I just...I don't know." It broke my heart to have to tell him that, but as a big, burly Uruk guard walked up and plopped down beside us, our conversation was cut short. My eyes turned away from Pippins's crestfallen face and looked up to the heavens. Dark clouds covered the night sky, so no stars were out and twinkling down at me. It was like a thick blanket of gloom was covering the last lights I had to look forward to at night and following me around, ominously hanging over my head at all hours of the day. Despair started seeping into my heart, and as I weakly tried to pull my wrists out of their thick rope bonds, a sudden thought crossed my mind for a fleeting second.

What was in store for me if we made it to the tower of Orthanc?

oOo

Erin's POV

I stood on top of a large rock, quite aways away from the tiny camp that the four of us had quickly set up to stop and rest at for part of the afternoon. My back was to the small blurs of color that I knew as my running buddies. I'd gathered a bunch of small stones in my hand and was tossing them one by one out into the open field. Boredom was one way to describe what I was going through at the moment.

I tossed another rock out, my eyes tracking it as it sailed through the air and landed in the yellowed grass. I felt horrible. The decent mood that I'd had once we'd started tracking Pippin and Kaia was long gone, because I realized that all of this was my fault. Merry shouldn't have died at Amon Hen! He never did that in the movies! He never did that when Kaia and I weren't involved...

With a sinking heart, I fully realized that our presence had now caused a major change in the course of events. And now Kaia was probably being abused by an Uruk somewhere, not having any clue that she needed to get the Ents to fight against Saruman. She didn't even know what Ents were! I hadn't been able to explain, because I'd been an idiot and pushed her out into captivity.

_I should've taken her place, _I thought. _At the very least, I would've known what to do. _I threw two rocks at once now. But no matter how much I wanted to...I couldn't have gone. I was the one that Saruman wanted, so I had to avoid his clutches at all costs. _Why does that mean I have to sacrifice the safety of my best friend, though?_

Suddenly, a hand clamped down on my shoulder, scaring the crap out of me. Without thinking, I whipped my hand around and threw the remainder of the stones in my hand at my attacker, expecting it to be an Uruk or something. My heart rate slowed when I saw Legolas behind me, looking kind of freaked out himself at being randomly hailed on with stones. He straightened up and wiped a few stray bits of gravel off of his shirt. "Nice to see you, too." He smiled a bit.

"Sorry," I said, turning back around and staring out at the plains before me.

"Erin." I could tell by the change in his tone that he realized I wasn't in the best mood. "What is wrong?"

I took a deep breath. "Well, let's see. My best friend is in the hands of the Uruk-Hai, being beaten, starved, maybe raped...gosh, I don't know. Merry's dead when he's not supposed to be, neither Kaia or Pippin know what they're supposed to do next, I have no way of contacting them, and so they could both easily die in the midst of all the chaos, which would set off a huge chain reaction that could possibly destroy all of Middle-Earth! And it's all my fault!" I didn't realize until I finished that my volume had grown until I was practically yelling at Legolas. I felt my eyes water, so I shifted slightly, not wanting him to see.

"You know that is not true, Erin."

"Oh, really?" I spun around to face him again. "Then please, be my guest! Explain to me why Merry Brandybuck was shot by an Uruk-Hai, when that arrow was meant to hit Boromir! Please, tell me why I shouldn't be scared out of my mind right now!" I yelled. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got at myself. "I'm so stupid," I muttered. "I got us all into this mess, and now I can't get us back out of it. Sauron might win because of me."

"Erin, _stop._" Legolas reached out and gripped both of my shoulders firmly with each of his hands. His tone was stern, but his expression was...much softer than that. "Do not ever say things like that about yourself. They are not true. It is not your fault. And nothing will ever be fixed if you lose all hope."

As soon as his hands touched me, all of my anger left me in a rush. I took a shaky breath and closed my eyes for a moment, opening them again to see Legolas now looking at me with a worried expression. "You are crying." _Am I? _I thought. He reached up and brushed a tear or two away with his thumb.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "I-"

"Erin," he cut me off, speaking quietly and taking a tentative step closer, "there is nothing to be sorry for."

I looked up at him sadly. _"...Im gosta," _I whispered, not wanting anyone to hear but him, even though we were far away from our camp still. (...I'm afraid.) I looked at my feet.

He gently took my hands in his, and I looked back up at him. "_Edro g__û__r l__í__n. Hebo estel." _(Open your heart. Have hope.) He paused, and then said _"__Ú__ i vethed...estelio le." _(This is not the end...trust me.)

I looked at him for a moment longer, silenced. Finally, I moved closer and pulled him into a much-needed hug. He hesitated for a moment, but then returned it. _"Hannon le, Legolas," _I said softly. (Thank you, Legolas.)

_"Glassen." _(My pleasure.)

We stayed in that hug for a few moments, until I was finally the one to pull away. "Well," I exhaled. "We should probably head back to camp. Knowing Aragorn, he'll probably want to start chasing them again." I turned and started to walk down the steep face of the rock, stopping when I heard no footsteps behind me. "Legolas?" I asked, turning around to see the blonde still standing at the top of the rock. "You coming?"

He looked over at me, meeting my gaze for a second. Legolas opened his mouth, as if about to say something, but just as he was about to speak, his gaze flicked to something else for a fraction of a second, though I couldn't tell what he'd looked at. "...In a moment. Go ahead without me."

I smiled at him. "Kay. See ya." With that, I turned and took off running down the hill, my mood considerably improved from Legolas' advice.

oOo

Legolas' POV

When Erin pulled herself out of my arms, I immediately missed the warmth of her embrace. I stared blankly at the ground, wondering if now would be the time to tell her...I vaguely registered her saying that she was going to return to Aragorn and Gimli, but I did not respond. My thoughts were jumbled in my mind, and I felt so unsteady...and undecided. The more I thought about it, however, the more I wanted to get it over with and tell her that I loved her. How much my heart soared when she hugged me, or smiled at me, or talked with me. I had come so close to kissing her...

Her voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "Legolas? You coming?"

I looked up into her shining green eyes. They reminded me of the green trees of my home every time I looked at them. _Erin, I love you. _The words were on the tip of my tongue, but just as I was bout to say them, I saw a glint of metal in the sunlight and looked down to see her necklace from Haldir resting against her shirt. Instantly I felt guilt overtake me, and my words faltered. "...In a moment. Go ahead without me."

She smiled. "Kay. See ya." I watched as she ran back to the camp, my eyes following her slim figure race across the grass. As soon as she was far enough away, I whipped out one of my white knives and threw it at the ground, the blade contacting it first and piercing the earth deeply.

I walked over to were the hilt jutted out from the ground and removed it, sitting down next to the spot where it had been thrown. I was not angry at Erin. I could never be. It was just...so incredibly frustrating. I remembered Kaia's words to me when I had told her how I felt about her friend. '_Wait awhile and see what happens.' _I sighed and shoved my knife into the ground again. I knew it would be wrong to try and separate her and Haldir for my own selfish desires. I would not do that. But how was I to ever tell her how much I loved her if she had already found another to hold her heart? I felt no bitterness towards the marchwarden, either. I had no reason to. He had not done it on purpose. In fact, he had probably cared for her before I ever had.

I stared at the camp for awhile, able to make out her figure as she reached it and stopped next to Gimli, talking to him about something. My gaze flicked down to the toes of my boots. "Valar help me figure out what to do," I said to myself before rising and wiping the dirt off of my knife before resheathing it and starting to make my way over to the others.

oOo

Erin's POV

As soon as Legolas came back to camp, we were on the move again. I'd gotten much more used to running for such a long time, though my legs still felt sore and kinda like Jell-O. Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn, and I; The Four Hunters, sprinted across the rocky, weather-beaten plains of wherever the frick we were. I hadn't really been paying attention to where we had been running in the past few days, but I assumed we weren't in Rohan quite yet. Actually...as we ran farther and farther, I got even more excited since I knew that we'd get to the country of the horse lords soon enough. I'd always wanted to see Edoras, sitting majestically on that great hill...and the Golden Hall overlooking everything.

About an hour or so later, my prayers were answered, for I came to a screeching halt beside Aragorn as I watched him pull something out of the ground, examining it. Legolas would've kept running right past him, if I hadn't gasped upon seeing what it was. "The Lórien brooch," I breathed.

Aragorn nodded. Sure enough, there sat the trio of emerald leaves with silver lining in his palm, though this one was muddy and messed up from being in the ground. "This would not have merely fallen from their cloaks," he stated, scanning the ground.

"They may yet be alive," Legolas said, and we both looked at each other with hope in our eyes.

"Less than a day ahead of us," Aragorn said, quickly getting to his feet and running again. "Come!"

I certainly didn't have to be told that twice. "Let's do this!" I said. "Get your game faces on!"

I heard Legolas laugh as he passed me, turning around and running backwards for a few seconds to call to Gimli. "Come, Gimli! We are gaining on them!"

I heard a growl of pain from behind and burst out laughing as I glanced over my shoulder to see Gimli quite literally rolling down the hill, peeling himself off the ground. "I'm wasted on cross-country!" he cried, and I mouthed the next line along with him. One of my favorite quotes. "We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous...over short distances!"

I laughed again and looked back at Legolas, who was still running backwards, also with a smile on his face. "Show off," I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

He rolled his eyes, but still smirked as he turned back around. "You are such a child."

"And proud of it!" I grinned as we kept moving. We quickly approached a hill that was almost entirely covered in rock, and Legolas easily passed both Aragorn and I as he made his way to the top, us humans just a few steps behind him. I caught my breath as I looked out over the scenery before me. The hills were wide and rolling, dotted with the cutest little wooden cottages and houses all over the place. A light breeze was in the air, and the sun shone down on us as we all stood there, in awe of this new territory.

"Rohan," Aragorn finally announced. "Home of the horse lords."

"That's so awesome," I said softly, my eyes bulging out of my head at the fact that I was seeing it in real life. _I still can't quite get used to that._

But Aragorn then realized something else. "There is something strange at work here. Some evil gives speed to these creatures...sets its will against us."

I shot him a look. "'Creatures?' Come on, Aragorn. Be nicer to the Rohirrim than that."

"You know what I meant," he said, waving me off as Legolas leapt forward, getting on top of a rock that allowed him to see far and wide over the plains. "Legolas!" he shouted as I raced forward to meet up with the elf. "What do your elf eyes see?"

As I came up behind him, he analyzed the area. "The Uruks turn northeast!" he reported. Then his expression became shocked, and I beamed as we shouted the infamous line as one (with a slight modification, that is). "THEY ARE TAKING THEM TO ISENGARD!"

Legolas shot me a look like he thought I was high or something, while I burst out laughing as I finished the song. "Gard! G-G-G-Gard! Oh man, that's classic."

"What in the name of the Valar are you talking about?" Legolas asked me, brow furrowed in confusion.

I shook my head. "It's an Earth thing. I'll explain it later. For now, we have some friends to rescue." I started running again, then stopped and turned around. "ARAGORN! UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO GET US LOST, I SUGGEST YOU LEAD THE WAY!"


	3. Running, Death, and Missing Swords

Staying Strong: Chapter Three

Erin's POV

An image of Kaia's face flashed through my mind, and I pushed myself to run just a bit faster across the plains of Rohan, dodging rocks along the way. Aragorn was at the head of our line, followed closely by Legolas, then me, and then (after a large gap, I might add) Gimli was at the rear. As we ran down a slight hill, Legolas glanced over his shoulder at me. "They run as if the very whips of their masters were behind them!"

I nodded and sucked in a gulp of air as I kept moving. "All the more reason to run faster!" I shouted back. Then, I turned around and shouted to Gimli. "You doing okay back there?"

"How long...'till we rest again, lass?" came the weak reply of a very worn out dwarf.

I couldn't help but smile a bit as I saw him. "I don't know! Whenever Aragorn feels like stopping!"

"So...three days from now?" he said sarcastically.

I laughed. "Just keep breathing, Gimli! That's the key!" Without waiting for a response, I turned my head forward again and focused on following Aragorn as we sped through Rohan. _Come on...we've gotta be close to them now. I can feel it._

oOo

Kaia's POV

I bit back a groan of pain as I was dropped on the ground yet again by an Uruk. It seemed like that was my life's cycle lately. Drop, rest, get picked up, be carried, vomit from smell, repeat...and sleep whenever possible. I rolled over onto my back, taking a few deep breaths of the foul air around me that stank from too many bodies in desperate need of a shower being close together. It was nighttime, so all was dark, but the moon shone brightly overhead, allowing everyone to see easily.

A moment later, I heard a sharp whisper from nearby. "Kaia! Kaia!"

I turned my head to see Pippin crawling over to me on his front and smiled. "Hey Pip. How're you holding up?"

He shrugged as best as he could while lying down. "Better than I could be, I suppose. You?"

"I feel like shit," I said simply. "But I guess I just gotta deal with it for now." I was about to say something else, when a bunch of Uruks and Orcs ran past us, each one of them with axes in their hands. They started hacking away at the trees that made up the border of what looked like a massive forest next to us. It was huge, but it didn't look very inviting.

Suddenly, there was a loud groan from in the trees, and I ignored it, thinking it was one of the choppers. But then it came again, and again, and eventually there were multiple moans and creaks coming from the forest. I looked over at it in both fear and awe. "What the hell is that?" I asked.

Pippin looked just as freaked out. "I don't know...but I don't think I want to ever go in there."

"Agreed. It sounds like it's coming from the trees themselves, but...nah, that can't be it. Trees don't talk."

A rough voice sounded from nearby, and I looked over to see a particularly large Uruk glaring coldly at something that looked like a black turd. "I'm starving. We ain't had nothing but maggoty bread for three stinking days!" He tossed the "bread" to the side.

"Yeah! Why can't we have some meat?" said a higher pitched, whiny sounding voice said, and I sat up to see an Orc with light skin and cruel fiery red eyes looking at Pippin and I hungrily. "What about them? They're fresh!"

"Oh, hell no!" I said. "Don't you even think about it!"

Surprisingly, an Uruk was on my side this time. "They are _not _for eating!"

Out of nowhere, I felt a strong hand grab my shoulder, and I winced as Pippin and I were dragged backwards across the grass so that we were father away from the one who'd thought about us being a meal. I noticed that all of the Orcs had gathered around him, while the rest of the Uruk stood almost protectively by us.

Another Orc, this one with dark skin, a few thin strands of hair, and pale, soulless eyes poked his head out from behind the first one. "What about their legs? They don't need those."

"Let us at least 'ave some fun with the girl, why don't ya?" someone shouted. There were growls and noises of agreement, and I suddenly felt a few stubby fingers slide over my ass. My entire body went rigid.

"Get the fuck off me!" I yelled, and I jabbed my elbow back into the gut of the Uruk holding onto me. He spat out an ugly curse at me, but got the warning message.

I guess the dark Orc was still obsessing over my legs. "Ooh, they look tasty," he smiled to himself. He started forward, and my heart rate went up a bit, but then another random Uruk jumped forward.

"Get back, you!" He viciously shoved the Orc back to his buddies, and instantly the tension increased tenfold. All of the Orcs took on a fighting stance, as did the Uruk-Hai surrounding me. There were several roars and growls. "The prisoners go to Saruman! Alive...and unspoiled!"

"That doesn't mean they go untouched," one pointed out, and I glared at the crowd behind me. _Dear God, kill me now...I'd rather be eaten than raped by an Orc._

"Alive?" the dark-skinned Orc questioned. He looked over at us again and tilted his head in a crazy way. "Why alive? They'd give good sport." He wiggled his tongue, and I cringed. _Does he have some kind of weird fetish or something?_

"The Halfling has something," the Uruk responded. "An Elvish weapon. And the girl has information. The Master wants both for the war."

Pippin suddenly caught on. "They think we have the Ring!" he said to me, sounding slightly panicked.

"Shut up!" I hissed at him. "If they realize we don't have it, then we're of no use to them. They'll kill us!"

From behind us, there came an odd and really creepy screech. "Just a mouthful!" We spun around to see the white Orc directly behind us, and I swear I saw him drooling. "A bit off the flank!" He raised his dirty sword high, and I wrestled furiously for my own as he swung down.

I expected pain, but none came. Instead, there was another growl, then a slicing sound, and I felt something hard drop onto my neck and roll off my back. I looked down to see the body of the Orc that had tried to kill us...with a black pool of blood where his head should've been. "Oh God..." I groaned, realizing what had hit me as I clapped a hand over my mouth and tried not to vomit.

That wasn't the worst of it, though. The Uruk that had killed him held up his blade with black trickling down it and grinned. "Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!"

I quickly put two and two together and pulled Pippin back as the Uruks and Orcs dove in and tore flesh straight from the dead Orc's body. Realizing that they were all distracted with the prospect of food, I got Pippin's attention. "Dude, let's go. This is our chance to finally get out of here." He nodded quickly, and the two of us started crawling like mad to get away from the hellish campsite. I thought we were doing good, but suddenly I realized that Pippin wasn't beside me anymore. I stopped and looked back, my heart clenching in fear as I saw the dark-skinned Orc with pale eyes from earlier leaning over him, gripping his face, and getting ready to stab him in the gut. _Oh God no no no no please no..._

Out of nowhere, my prayers were answered, for a second later a spear came from the side and stabbed the Orc directly in the back. He screamed in pain and released Pippin, who crawled away and headed towards me, looking terrified. He opened his mouth to say something, but I wasn't paying attention. I was looking around in shock at the fifty or so horsemen that randomly showed up and were now slaughtering bad guys left and right. The Orcs and Uruks were completely unprepared and freaking out, one by one falling to the ground. It was chaos...and a perfect chance to get out of here unnoticed. _Fate's definitely smiling down on us today. _I nudged Pippin and motioned for him to follow quickly. I focused on getting away safely for the moment, when suddenly I heard a scream from nearby. I looked around again to see Pippin laying on his back, screaming in terror as a horse reared up overtop of him, ready to come down hoof-first on his face.

"Pippin!" I shouted. "MOVE!"

Thankfully that snapped him out of it, because he immediately rolled away, just barely missing being crushed by the large animal. I turned away as he started following me, but stopped as I almost ran right into a large and very sharp looking piece of metal that was sticking out of the ground. A brilliant idea hit me, and I quickly lifted my hands up and started sawing through the rope with the metal, slicing through it in a matter of seconds. It cut the rope faster than I expected, so at the last second my hands slipped and connected with the blade at the wrist, sending a brief stinging pain through me, but I ignored it and got to my feet. "Pippin!" I ran over to him and untied his bonds as fast as I could.

He looked up at me, confused as I yanked him to his feet. "How did you-"

"Metal on the ground," I explained. "Now run!"

The two of us ran around sparratically, dodging falling bodies, random weapons thrown in our general direction, horses that could trample us easily...etc., etc. "Where are we going?" Pippin asked suddenly.

I then realized that I honestly had no clue where I was leading us. "...I don't know!" I lifted my gaze and saw a mass of green and brown staring me right in the face. "Nevermind! I know now! Get to the forest!"

Although neither of us really wanted to go in there, it would have to do as a hiding place for the moment. We were getting steadily closer, Pippin in front, when I suddenly felt a hand latch onto me. "Oh God!" I shouted. I twisted around and saw the creepy Orc from before trying to pull me down, growling ferociously.

"Your belt!" Pippin yelled. "Take it off!"

I looked at him like he was insane. "Hell no! My swords are on that thing!"

"Kaia, just do it!" He looked worried, and although I certainly didn't want to, I finally gave in and unlatched my belt, feeling the weight of my twin black blades that I'd gotten so used to leave my hips. I heard it clatter to the ground, and the curses of the Orc, who was clearly dissatisfied.

"Run!" I cried, and we both bolted for the line of trees ahead. Before I knew it, we had safely gotten into the forest, the ground instantly becoming softer under my feet. I tripped and nearly fell flat on my face from a tree root that was sticking out of the ground at an odd angle, but quickly kept going. Neither of us said a word as the sounds of the battle behind us soon faded into silence. All we cared about now was getting as far away from everyone else as possible.

oOo

Éomer's POV

I strode purposefully through the remains of the small band of Uruk-Hai that we had just finished off. My men and I had easily overtaken them all, but one can never be too careful in assuring that they all were truly dead. Black bodies littered the ground, which was absorbing the thick, oily blood that leaked from various wounds. The air was thick, and the rush of adrenaline I always got from battle was slowly fading away. I scanned the area around me quickly, not wanting to waste any time before we started moving again.

Suddenly, I heard a shout from one of my men from behind. "Lord Éomer!" I turned to see an older man than myself run over, carrying something in his hand. "These were found near the borders of Fangorn." He unsheathed two long, twin black blades, showing them to me.

I glanced away without a second thought. "Weapons of the Enemy. What use are they to me?"

"No sir, these aren't Uruk weapons," he corrected me. "The men and I believe them to be of elvish make."

That caught my attention, and I turned back to the man, taking the swords into my own hands and examining them. Yes, they were both black from the tip of the blade to the base of the hilt, but now I could see that they were not as crudely cut as an Orc or Uruk's weapon would have been. I had never seen black metal been used on any other type of weapon, though. After studying them for a moment longer, I resheathed them and handed them back to the man. "Keep them for your own use. I don't need them, though they are quite a curious pair of blades." The man nodded, and I walked past him, continuing to make my way through the corpses of the Uruk-Hai.

oOo

Erin's POV

Our running came to a halt for a second at the top of a large hill, where Aragorn knelt to check the ground again. I looked out into the distance, and blinked when I saw a huge mass of horses headed our way. "Guys, look!" I said, grabbing Aragorn's arm. He looked up as we heard the whinny of a single horse from the group, and then all four of us quickly ran over and hid behind a large boulder nearby. I slipped in between Legolas and Gimli, my back pressed flat against the rock. The thundering of many horse hooves grew closer and closer, until I looked over and saw horses of every size, shape, and color passing us by in blurs of speed.

Once they had all passed, Aragorn stepped out of hiding and stood at the top of the hill. "Riders of Rohan!" he shouted down to them. "What news from the Mark?"

As they heard his call, the leader of their group (who even now I knew was Éomer) tilted his spear to the left, and the group of horsemen made a u-turn. The rest of us ran out with Aragorn, and within a matter of seconds we were in the center of the Rohirrim that had formed a tight circle around us, spears pointed inward at our bodies. We all stood back to back, and I looked around at the horsemen, trying not to look too intimidated.

All of a sudden, a voice from behind me had me spin around to see Éomer himself sitting proudly atop his black and grey horse. "What business does an elf, a man, a woman, and a dwarf have in in the Riddermark?" He seemed to have hardly any patience. "Speak quickly!"

Gimli, ever the brave one of the group, spread his feet a bit and leaned on his axe. "Give me your name, horsemaster, and I shall give ya mine." I cracked a smile at that.

Éomer didn't seem too pleased. He slid off of his horse and sauntered up to the short man. "I would cut off your head, _dwarf,_" he mocked, "if it stood but a little higher from the ground."

With lightning speed, Legolas whipped out his bow and arrow and was aiming at the horseman's face. "You would die before your stroke fell!" Every spear in the place closed in on us more, and the circle grew tighter to the point where it became hard to move.

"Hey now," I said, glaring at Legolas. "Let's not make enemies with each other, okay?" Aragorn nodded and pushed his straight arm down, but Legolas' angry eyes never left Éomer's. I then looked at Aragorn, who proceeded to introduce us.

"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli, son of Gloín, Erin of Minas Tirith, and Legolas of the Woodland Realm." He looked at the horse lord respectfully. "We are friends of Rohan, and of Théoden, your king."

Éomer sighed. "Théoden no longer recognizes friend from foe," he said sadly, removing his helmet. "Not even his own kin." At this, the rest of his men relaxed, stepped back a bit, and pointed their spears vertically. "Saruman has poisoned the mind of the King and claimed lordship over these lands. My company and I are those loyal to Rohan, and for that...we were banished." My gaze softened. I remembered the scene from the movie where Grima kicked him out. I pitied him. Éomer was a good man, he was just a little prideful and rough sometimes. He stepped closer to Aragorn, then continued to move past the rest of us as he spoke. "The White Wizard is cunning. He walks here and there, they say, as an old man, hooded and cloaked." He paused and shot a cold glare at Legolas. "And everywhere his spies slip past our nets."

"We are no spies," Aragorn replied. When the blonde man turned to him, he spoke nothing but the truth. "We track a party of Uruk-Hai westward across the plain. They have taken two of our friends captive."

I wasn't surprised when Éomer said exactly what I knew he would. "The Uruks are destroyed; we slaughtered them during the night."

"But there was a hobbit! Did you see a hobbit with them?" Gimli questioned.

"And there was also a woman with them," Aragorn added. "A woman the same height as Erin, though with dark skin and hair. She would've been dressed in mostly black, with two twin blades as weapons."

Éomer eyed him oddly for a second, then answered. "We saw none other than servants of the enemy, but one of my men found these in the aftermath." He turned behind him and held out his hand. A moment later, an older looking man rode forward and placed a very familiar object in them. I looked at Éomer, a bit freaked out as he held up Kaia's twin black blades for all to see.

"...Where did you get those?" I asked quietly.

All eyes turned to me when I spoke up, including his brown ones. "One of my men discovered them on the ground after battle." I couldn't take my eyes off of the weapons as he spoke. "Do you know them?"

I didn't answer immediately, but instead took them from him and cradled them in both hands. _Kaia would've never just...just plain left her blades behind, would she? _A sense of foreboding settled on me. _Did something go wrong?_

I heard Aragorn speak up from beside me to Éomer. "They belong to the woman that was taken from our group. You did not see her at all?"

"No," he replied. Then, a bit more hesitantly, he added "...but we left none alive in the battle."

There was a moment of silence after his words. I felt Legolas firmly but gently grip my shoulder. I raised my head and looked up at Éomer. "Did you see anyone run off anywhere?"

He shook his head. "We made sure that none escaped."

Though I knew that in the movie, Merry and Pippin had escaped into Fangorn safely, I couldn't help but feel grieved and worried. One, Merry wasn't here anymore, so that had caused a major change in the timeline of events. Two, this is Kaia we're talking about. Even I can't predict what she does sometimes. She probably would've tried fighting back...especially since she didn't know that the Rohirrim were good guys. And she wasn't small enough to go unseen...and she dressed in almost all black...Would that be enough to mistake her for an Uruk-Hai in the darkness of the night?

"I'm sorry." At least the captain of the horsemen sounded sincere. I looked over at Legolas with a slightly panicked expression, and his eyes told me to calm down and not worry. I looked back at Kaia's blades, still attached to their belt.

Éomer's voice grabbed my attention again. "We piled the carcasses and burned them." All four of us followed his pointing finger through a gap between two of the horsemen and saw the smoke floating up into the sky off in the distance. Again, he was met with no response. We were all too shocked to say anything. He whistled. "Hasufel! Arod! Frania!" Just like that, three horses trotted forward. Hasufel and Arod I recognized, one being brown and the latter white. The third one, whose name was apparently Frania, was a pale silvery-grey with a dusting of white freckles on her face and lower legs. Her mane was a darker grey. I walked over and stroked her neck, taking the reins in my hand. "May these horses bear you to better fortune than their former masters," he said.

I looked up again to see him back on his horse, ready to ride. "Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands," he added quietly at the end. "We ride north!" he called to his men, and as a group they all moved swiftly away, leaving nothing but the four of us and our new horses in their wake.

oOo

We quickly mounted our own respective horses and headed up to the area where the massacre had happened. The closer we got, the harder it became to breathe from both the smoke around us and the disgusting smell of burning flesh and rotting corpse. I coughed on the ashes in the air as we drew closer, cringing at the sight of an Uruk's head grotesquely speared on a pole in the ground. I had strapped Kaia's belt around my waist, feeling slightly awkward now that I carried two on my hips.

Once we reached the pile, we all dismounted and started searching. Well...Gimli did. He used his axe to pick through the bodies that were tangled up with one another in an effort to actually find something. Aragorn was walking around in circles, scanning the ground, and Legolas was just standing nearby, looking at the surroundings. I stood a bit farther off, staring blankly at the pile of dead Uruks. I knew what happened in the movie already, but...if just my presence here was enough to have Merry killed, then was it really that far-fetched to say that Kaia and Pippin might not have made it into the forest safely as well? I shuddered as I watched Gimli work. If he found Kaia's body in there...

I looked up at Legolas, who had walked over to me. He looked concerned. "Are you alright?"

"What do you think?" I snapped. A moment later, I closed my eyes and sighed, running a hand through my hair. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that, I just...I'm worried."

"I understand," he said. There was a slightly awkward silence, as neither of us really knew what else to say. Finally, Legolas spoke again. "Forgive me. I feel like I am not doing much to help."

I shook my head. "It's okay. Don't worry about me."

"Why would I not? I care about you...you know that."

I smiled a bit. "How could I not know that? Thanks anyway, though. Just having someone to talk to like I can talk to you helps."

Suddenly, Gimli stopped picking through the burned stuff and turned around sadly. "Nothing."

I didn't know whether or not to take that as a comfort or not. Either way, it made Aragorn mad, because he completely bunted a metal helmet off to the side and screamed, falling to his knees.

Legolas gently took my hand and closed his eyes. _"Hiro hyn...hîdh ab 'wanath." _(May they find piece after death). That shook me to the core, and I felt a lump form in my throat. Actually saying that they were dead out loud got me to think that maybe it really was true. If that was the case, then I'd never be able to forgive myself for pushing Kaia into the hands of the Uruks.

There was silence for awhile, before Aragorn spoke, gingerly touching the dirt beside him. "A hobbit lay here...and here, a woman." A moment later, he realized something. "...They crawled." Continuing on, he moved a few feet to the left. "Their hands were bound." More walking, and now all three of us were following him. He dropped to one knee again and pulled a rope out of the ground, looking at the ends of it. "Their bonds were cut!" Now he seemed a bit more excited. "They ran over here... they were followed...then here...The tracks lead away from the battle!" He finally stopped, right at the edge of our newest area to explore. "...And into Fangorn Forest." We all looked up at the odd, twisted trees, looking like they had been there almost longer than Middle-Earth itself.

"Fangorn..." Gimli whispered. "What madness draw from in there?"


	4. Oh Look, Another Plot Twist

Staying Strong: Chapter Four

Kaia's POV

Pippin and I continued running through the creepy forest, dodging low-hanging branches, jumping over tree roots and small streams, and all the while thinking of escape. Finally, the little hobbit and I couldn't run any longer, and we dropped to the ground, catching our breath. Pippin glanced around, still looking kind of freaked out. "Did we lose him? I think we lost him," he panted.

I closed my eyes and sighed, leaning back against a tree. "Thank God."

As if God was purposely mocking me, we suddenly heard rustling noises and growls from not far away. Pippin and I looked to our right, the smiles slowly falling from our faces, as the same Orc that had grabbed onto my belt emerged from the bushes, looking incredibly pissed. He looked left, then right, and then finally noticed us as we scrambled to our feet and took off again. "I'm gonna rip out your filthy little innards!"

We tried to move quickly through the forest, hiding behind a tree every now and then, but after a minute or so there was even more growling, and I peeked out from behind the trunk of a very large tree to see not one, not two, but _five _more Uruks tramping through the forest, following the smaller Orc in front of them. "Shit!" I hissed, then looked over at Pippin. "Hide! Get out of here somehow while I distract them!"

"Come here!" the Orc cried again.

Pippin didn't look too thrilled about my idea. "Kaia...are you sure you can take 'em?"

"I'll be fine," I said. "Just..." I glanced up, remembering where we were. "Climb a tree! Go!" Thankfully, he nodded and took off. I stepped out from behind the tree, now in full view of all six of my opponents.

One of the Uruk-Hai sneered. "Well, well, well. You finally surrender, eh?"

I smirked. "You wish." I charged forward, whipping out my swords from my belt and easily slicing through his chest.

...Or so I thought. Just as I collided with him at full speed, I remembered that I had dropped my belt, which carried my weapons, back at the fight earlier. I was shoved onto my back on the ground, but quickly got back to my feet. _Shake it off, Kaia...just shake it off. _

The Uruks were all laughing, but I noticed that the little Orc guy was nowhere to be seen. "I'm just curious...after you tried to kill me, what were you planning on doing next?" asked the one that I'd run into.

I clenched my fists. _Guess it'll be an old-fashioned brawl, then. Fine. I can do that. _I pounced on them again, swinging my fists madly and connecting with something twice, hearing cries of pain from two of my opponents. Someone grabbed onto my shoulder, and I kicked behind me, knocking him away. A few moments later, all of the Uruk had stumbled backwards, seeming a bit surprised that I'd actually been able to hit all of them. I stepped back to catch my breath. "You want some more?"

Now the lead Uruk grinned back at me. "I'm sorry, lady, but that'll have to be a no." Without warning, the other four jumped forward all at once, instantly knocking me to the ground. I viciously twisted and writhed under their weight, trying to escape, but then they landed a couple of good blows on my own body, and the more I struggled, the weaker I became.

I have no idea how it happened, but somehow I ended up lying flat on my back in the dirt, with the four Uruks pinning each of my limbs down. Their leader walked up to me triumphantly, an evil grin on his face, and placed his foot on my stomach hard. I gasped as the air was forced out of me. "We'll not let you escape so easily this time. Boys...you know what to do."

Right on cue, one of the Uruks punched me with a fist covered in steel, right in the stomach. I cringed in pain and coughed, wanting to fight back, but unable to. I couldn't even yell for help now. They picked me up and tied my hands together again, as well as putting a cloth over my mouth and nose. I tried to take deep breaths to calm myself, but found myself inhaling something that certainly didn't smell like air. _Shit...they drugged it..._ Almost instantly after I tried to breath through the cloth, I felt my eyelids grow heavy, and the world started to slow down. I barely even registered seeing the smiling face of an Uruk in front of me as I drifted into unconciousness. My last thought before I completely blacked out was _Dear Lord, please let Pippin be okay..._

oOo

Erin's POV

My first impression of Fangorn? It was an absolute mess.

Trees were twisted and bent at every possible angle. Their roots jutted out of the ground, making it almost impossible to walk in a straight line without tripping over something. The dirt on the ground was soft and crumbled beneath my feet, causing me to sink into the ground slightly if I stood in the same place for too long. The whole place was just a tangle of hills, valleys, branches, leaves...you name it. Moss hung down in thin strips and sheets from many of the thick branches overhead, and the leaves on the trees were so large and thick that they blocked out almost all sunlight, save for a few shafts of it that showed up here and there. I stumbled on a rock and winced as I stubbed my toe, trying to keep up with the other men. "If I had a nickel for every time I've tripped over something in here, I'd be the richest person in the world," I muttered.

We had been working our way through Fangorn for several hours. At this point, I think it was about... mid-March, so the air was starting to warm up a bit, which made it humid and really muggy in the forest. In the movies, I'd always thought Fangorn was a cool place, but now...well, let's just say my opinion has changed quite a bit.

Gimli walked up to a bush with a strange black liquid on its leaves. He scraped some of it onto his finger and licked it off, then instantly spat it out. "Orc blood!" he said in disgust. I looked at him oddly, wondering how he knew what that tasted like.

Aragorn was, as always, leading the way. The four of us jumped over a small stream and ran down a rocky slope before the ranger knelt down and examined an odd print in the ground. It looked like a sun with a bunch of odd, curled rays spreading out from it. "These are strange tracks," he said, running a hand over it gently.

"The air is so close in here!" Gimli said, and I nodded in agreement as I fanned myself with my hand.

Legolas was looking around at the forest with great interest. "This forest is old...very old. Full of memory...and anger!"

Suddenly, the trees started groaning and creaking ominously. Even though I knew what it was, it still freaked me out a little bit. Gimli jumped in surprise and whipped out his axe, turning this way and that to locate the sound.

"The trees are speaking to each other!" Legolas said, and I looked at him as he turned around.

"Don't get too excited over there," I teased. He just smiled for a second and shook his head.

"Gimli!" Aragorn hissed suddenly. "Lower your axe!"

I laughed as Gimli slowly put down his weapon and started to raise his hands in a gesture of piece. "They're just trees, Gimli. They won't bite." At that moment, I saw Legolas tense and run off a bit out of the corner of my eye, so I followed him. He was balancing on top of a tree root, looking around. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm not sure...I feel a presence." He looked down at me. "We are not alone."

I realized what was coming and nodded seriously before walking back to Aragorn and Gimli. "Guys, get ready. Someone else is in here with us." They both shot me confused looks as Legolas ran past us again, now stopping at a different point to scan the area.

Aragorn followed his elven friend, also trying to see what was following us. _"Man chenich?" _(What do you see?) he whispered.

Legolas waited a moment before answering quietly. "The White Wizard approaches." He nodded his head over to his right, and I looked over there from where I stood behind them, my eyes widening as I saw a glimpse of white off in the distance before it disappeared in the trees. He was close now.

"He's coming from behind," I warned.

We all stood cautiously still for a moment before Aragorn broke the silence with a whisper. "Do not let him speak! He will put a spell on us." I heard the scrape of his sword as he loosened it in its sheath. Gimli readied his throwing axes, I drew my own sword, and Legolas fingered the feathers on an already drawn arrow.

"We must be quick," Aragorn instructed. The tension increased as we all stood there, waiting for just the right moment...

A second later, Aragorn gave a cry and completely pulled out his sword while turning around, the rest of us quickly following suit. Gimli wasted no time in tossing his axe at the white figure, who shone so brightly you couldn't even see his face. He had incredible aim, but somehow the wizard was able to deflect it with his staff, shattering the axe on contact. Legolas fired an arrow, but that was deflected and destroyed as well. Aragorn lifted his sword, but it burned his hands by magically growing hot as fire, and he dropped it to the ground. I stood behind all of them, saying and doing nothing. Legolas noticed this and shot me a look.

The white light obscuring his face grew brighter, so much that it almost blinded us, and Aragorn had to shield his face. I tried to hide my knowing smile as the figure spoke. "You are tracking the footsteps of a young hobbit."

"Where is he?" Aragorn demanded. I frowned, suddenly realizing that he hadn't mentioned Kaia.

"He passed this way. The day before yesterday. He met someone he...did not expect. Does that comfort you?"

Aragorn was confused by now, as were we all. "Who are you?" The figure was silent. "Show yourself!"

The figure finally stepped forward, the white light around him disappearing to reveal a very familiar face. All jaws (except mine) dropped when Gandalf himself stood in front of us, dressed in bright white robes, with sleek white hair, and an ivory staff carved out of wood. There was a shocked silence for several moments, until I finally broke it. "Well! Long time no see!" I said to the old wizard, beaming. He nodded in my direction.

"...It cannot be," Aragorn whispered, stepping closer.

Legolas dropped to his knees and bowed, followed by Gimli. "Forgive me. I mistook you for Saruman."

"I am Saruman," Gandalf replied. "Or, Saruman as he should have been."

Aragorn was still freaked out. "...You fell!"

"Through fire...and water," Gandalf agreed.

As he launched into his brief tale about how he'd killed the Balrog, Legolas got to his feet again and stepped back so that he was beside me. "You knew this the entire time? And you told no one?" He sounded a bit hurt.

"I couldn't tell anyone, not even you," I said. "I'm sorry. It would've ruined the plot."

He realized something else. "That is why you did not let Kaia save him in Moria. You knew he would come back."

I nodded. "Now you see my logic, huh?" I winked at him, and he gave me a small smile before the two of us paid attention to Gandalf again.

"But it was not the end," he was saying. "I felt life in me again. I'd been sent back, until my task is done."

"Gandalf," Aragorn said, moving closer to his friend.

"Gandalf?" he said, trying to remember where that name was from. "Yes...that was what they used to call me...Gandalf the Grey." He smiled to himself. "That was my name."

"Gandalf," Gimli repeated, grinning widely.

He nodded, then became serious again. "I am Gandalf the White. And I come back to you now...at the turn of the tide."

I then remembered what I was going to ask him. "Wait...you saw Pippin, right? So where's Kaia?"

Gandalf looked over to me, brow furrowed. "Kaia? She is not with you?" He scanned our little group, only just noticing that we were the only ones there.

"No," I said, starting to get scared. "I thought she was with Pippin!"

The Istari looked back at me, also looking worried. "She was not with him when Treebeard brought him to me. Pippin was alone."

My eyes widened, and I felt my heart drop into my stomach. I completely froze, and looked down at her twin black blades that hung from my hips. Gandalf noticed them, too, and when I looked back up, all the others had similar looks of worry on their faces. "Gandalf," I said warily, my voice shaking, "where is she?"

He didn't answer for a long time, and every second that he didn't speak only scared me even more. When he finally did, he sighed and looked at me sadly. "I don't know, Erin. It is troubling that Kaia has gone missing, but...we must press on." He hesitantly pulled a cloak from Lórien around himself, hiding his white robes, and started forward. Aragorn and Gimli followed, but I couldn't get my feet to move. I looked up at Legolas, who walked over and hugged me tightly.

I buried my face in his shoulder again. "Legolas...do you think she...she's dead?"

He let me go after a moment and looked me in the eyes. "I am sorry, Erin, but I cannot say. None of us know what happened to her."

"But she...she could be anywhere! Where on earth would she be if not here or with Pippin? She was supposed to stay with Pippin!" I looked around frantically now, panicking. _I never gave Pippin the instruction to lead the Ents into war with Saruman! What if it doesn't happen now? If Saruman isn't defeated, what's gonna happen to the rest of the plot? _My breathing grew faster the more I freaked out, until Legolas stopped me by hugging me again.

"Erin...stop. Calm down. Panicking is not going to help anyone."

I looked up at him, crushed. "But, Kaia...she's gone!"

"I know," he said, "but...If I know Kaia, she is not an easy person to get rid of. She can hold her own well enough...she should be fine."

"But what if she isn't?" I cried.

Legolas didn't answer, he just hugged me a bit tighter. We stayed like that for a few seconds. until I had finally calmed down enough to move on. When I finally pulled away, I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Thank you."

He smiled at me. "Not a problem. Now come. We must catch up with the others." He waited a moment as I steadied myself and cleared my head, and then the two of us started running through Fangorn, catching up to Gandalf, Aragorn, and Gimli quicker than I expected.

"One stage of your journey is over, another begins," he explained when we were all together again. "We must travel to Edora with all speed."

"Edoras?" Gimli asked. "That is no short distance!"

Aragorn said something quietly to Gandalf, while Legolas spoke to Gimli. "Well, you have already gotten used to running a long way."

"I'd prefer not to do it again," the dwarf replied.

I managed a small smile. "Same here."

"Then we have run all this way for nothing!" he continued. "Now we must leave that poor hobbit here in this...horrid, dark, dank, tree-infested-" he was cut off by the low rumbling of the massive trees around us as we passed them by. "Ah! I mean...charming! Quite charming forest!"

Gandalf turned around to us. "It was more than mere chance that brought Pippin to Fangorn. A great power has been sleeping here for many long years. The coming of Pippin will be like the fall of small stones that start an avalanche in the mountains."

"In one thing you have not changed, dear friend," Aragorn said.

"Hmm?" Gandalf looked over at him, to which Aragorn leaned up to his ear.

"You still speak in riddles." They both laughed at that.

"A thing is about to happen," said Gandalf with a knowing look, "that has not happened since The Elder Days. The Ents will be awakened, and find that they are strong."

Gimli looked scared again. "Strong? Oh, that's...good."

"So stop your fretting, Master Dwarf," Gandalf scolded before starting to move again. "Pippin is quite safe. In fact, they are far safer than you are about to be!" He disappeared behind a tree.

Gimli let out a huff of air as the rest of us followed the white wizard. "This new Gandalf's more grumpy than the old one."

oOo

After another hour or so of walking, Gandalf finally led us out of Fangorn Forest, and my spirits were lifted a bit as I felt the warm sun and fresh air on my face again. We walked out a bit, and I noticed our horses that Éomer had given to us standing nearby, patiently waiting exactly where we'd left them. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and I all grabbed our own steeds, and then Gandalf stood proud and tall as he let loose a long, high-pitched whistle, followed by a lower one. There was a moment of silence as we all waited...and then a single whinny from off in the distance.

All eyes watched as a single white horse, his coat and mane shining in the afternoon sun, came bounding over the wide, rolling hills of Rohan. "That is one of the Mearas," Legolas said in awe, "unless my eyes are cheated by some spell!"

When the horse finally reached us, he went straight to Gandalf, who lovingly placed a hand on him. "Shadowfax...He is the lord of all horses...and has been my friend through many dangers."

With that, we all mounted our horses, and I smiled a bit to myself as I looked at the others. "Let's ride." As we took off, galloping freely across the plains, my eyes swept over the vast, empty land before us. _Wherever you are, Kaia...I hope you're safe._

**A/N: Hey guys! :D Just wanted to give you a quick note on how the rest of this series will be updated. I'd like to finish_ Staying Strong_ by the end of August, so that I have it completed before I go back to school. :) There might be another short break before I start the last one (which I don't have a title for just yet XD), simply because I'll have to get back into the routine of another school year. The last book, which will take place during the events of _Return of the King_, should be published at the beginning of September, and hopefully finished in that month. :D Hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	5. Home of the Horse Lords

Staying Strong: Chapter Five

Kaia's POV

March twenty-third.

That was the day we finally arrived at Isengard. I'll never forget it.

The small band of Uruk-Hai that had managed to recapture me was now a band of four. One of the Uruks had been, uh..._sacrificed _when we ran out of food. They had tried to feed it to me, but I didn't dare eat Uruk flesh. It wouldn't have stayed in my stomach for longer than two seconds. In any event, we arrived at the peak of a large hill that looked down into the base of the Misty Mountains. I peeked over the shoulder of my captor to see a large ring made of black stone emerge from the mountain, with a really tall black tower at its center with four spikes at the top of it. Smoke rose up from various pits that were in the ground all over the place within the ring, and I could see small creatures running around even from up here.

The Uruk's leader stepped up next to me and grinned. "Welcome to your new home, lady. Move out, boys!" With that, they all started running again, and within several minutes they'd made it down the hill and into the gates. As we walked through the place, I was unimpressed. It didn't really look evil at all. It just looked like someone dumped their trash bag from wood and metal shop all over the area and thrown a bunch of Uruk-Hai in. There was only one real path, and it led directly from the stone archway to the base of the black tower's stone steps that led to the entrance. I looked up at it and sighed. _This should be fun._

The Uruks walked up the stairs in a single file line and knocked on the doors, which were opened by – you guessed it – another Uruk. They said something to each other in a harsh language that I didn't understand, and then the door guard let us pass through.

As soon as we were inside, they set me down from where I'd been carried on an Uruk's back and untied my hands just as the doors closed with a _bang_, only to replace the ropes with metal handcuffs. They had removed the gag from my mouth some time ago.

The Uruk captain stood in front of me and sneered. "Don't you try and cause trouble," he warned, then walked off through one of the sets of double doors. The other Uruks stood around me like the Secret Security or something. We were all dead silent. Not like any of us wanted to talk to each other anyway, though.

After a few minutes, the Uruk captain came back from the same double doors. "The Master awaits you."

When the Uruk standing behind me jabbed me in the back with a sharp fingernail, I took that as a sign to go forward, so I followed the Uruk captain up the stairs. The other three fell in line behind me. On the other side of the doors was a tightly coiled spiral staircase. As we walked up them, I noted that the interior of Orthanc was even more depressing than the rest of Isengard. The different rooms were only lit by the outside sun and a few burning torches that were mounted on the wall here and there. It was very dark and...evil-looking on the inside.

Eventually, we came to the top of the stairs and stopped at another pair of huge black doors, though these had the emblem of a white hand on the front. I frowned. What did that mean? The Uruk pushed open the doors, and I stepped inside.

This chamber was much more decorated than the rest, though it was still all in the same shade of black. On the floor, there was a weird geometric pattern etched in white, and there were four pairs of double doors spaced around the room, counting the ones I had entered through. They were all closed, and on each side of all the doors, there was a black pole with some sort of circular decoration at the top. The walls had all kinds of jagged, roughly cut patterns in it, and on one of the walls there was a black throne mounted up, with four steps leading up to it. In the exact center of the room, there was a black pedestal with curved spikes sticking off of it in various places with a large round object sitting on top of it, thought I couldn't tell what it was because it was covered by a thick piece of cloth. On the throne was an old, tall man dressed in long white robes. He had long, pin straight white hair, a mustache, and beard, but the center of his mustache and the beginning of his beard was tinted with a bit of black. He held a black staff in his hand that looked just like the top of Orthanc for a design, but with a pure white stone set into the top of it.

It was silent for a moment as he stared me down with his dark brown eyes. When he finally spoke, his voice was deep and menacing. "What is your name?"

"Kaia," I said lowly, glaring at him. "I assume you're Saruman?"

He smiled at me with fake pleasure. "You are correct. Do you know why you are here?"

I hesitated for a minute. _Should I tell him that I know, or should I lie and say that I don't? _After a couple seconds, I answered him. "You want information from me."

"Correct again, Miss Kaia. I know of your origins. You are from another world, a world where Middle-Earth does not exist. Where it is just a children's tale. And you know the ending, do you not?"

_Play hard to get. _"Maybe I do," I said. "Maybe I don't. Either way, I wouldn't tell you anything."

I saw no change in emotion from him. _This might be easier than I thought. _"I thought you might say that," Saruman responded, "so I will make you an offer. If you tell me what I wish to know, then I will set you free, and you can go back to your friends and live in peace. If you refuse...you will be kept here until my _methods _draw the information from you. You can either aid me willingly, or I will get what I want by force. Your choice."

I scoffed. "As if I could be bought for such a low price."

He raised a bushy grey eyebrow. "You do not fear captivity?"

"No," I said immediately, "and I also know that as long as you and Sauron are alive, there will never be peace. You're a liar. You probably wouldn't even let me go anyway."

"Good to know. Unfortunately for you, this means that unless you answer all my questions truthfully and honestly, there will be consequences."

_Wait a second. This could end up working in my favor. _I nodded. "Okay then. I swear that you can ask me anything about the future, and I'll answer it honestly. Completely, one hundred percent truth."

He seemed a bit surprised by my sudden agreement to his terms, but nodded as well and smiled grimly. "Excellent. I am glad we could come to an understanding. Now then!" He rose from his chair and gripped his staff in his hand. "Tell me, Kaia...where is the One right right now?"

"I don't know."

Suddenly, an unseen force slammed into me, and the next thing I knew I was being pinned against the black wall ten feet off the ground. I looked down to see Saruman with a scowl on his face, his staff pointed in my direction. "I thought you might try something like that. I am sorry to inform you of this, Kaia, but you gave your word to be honest." He slammed his staff downwards, and my body was suddenly removed from the wall and smashed onto the ground, face-first. I cried out in pain and pushed myself up a bit, tasting blood in my mouth. I spat it out onto his floor. "Tell me what you know!" the wizard demanded.

Though I cringed in pain from aches blossoming all over my body, I managed to still glare at him coldly. "I told you! I don't know!" I was rewarded for my answer by being picked up and dropped again.

"You will not lie to me, Kaia," Saruman said gravely. "I want answers! What do you know about the war?"

I cried out as he lifted me up with his magic again and slammed me into the ground. I felt helpless, like I was being controlled by a voodoo doll. Time and time again he threw me around with his staff, but not once did he ever hear anything out of me other than grunts of pain. I didn't know anything, so I couldn't tell him anything. If only I could get him to believe that and let me go.

oOo

Erin's POV

I twisted around in my bed for what seemed like the hundredth time that night, trying to get comfortable. Over the months of traveling, I'd actually gotten quite used to sleeping on cold, hard ground, but for whatever reason, tonight it seemed like every tiny stone in the area had migrated to underneath my blanket and was determined to poke through it. It just seemed impossible to sleep. Finally giving up, I threw back my blankets and got up, walking away from our small camp to stand out on the edge of the shadows. I noticed that on the opposite side of the camp, Aragorn and Gandalf were talking quietly as they looked out to the red blotch of sky that signaled where Mordor was. I didn't join them, though. I went off on my own.

Once I felt like I was far enough away, I sat down in the grass and plucked three blade of it from the ground, starting to braid them together as I thought. In the back of my mind, I knew exactly why I couldn't sleep...it was because there was too much stuff going on in my mind right now. Kaia was nowhere to be found. Pippin had to get the Ents to go to war all on his own, but he didn't even know it. Merry was dead when he should've been alive. Everything was falling apart. Heck, I didn't even know if things would go like they were supposed to now in Rohan anymore.

I glanced down at my necklace and picked up the emblem of the Galadhrim that hung from it, running my thumb over the design. I missed Haldir, too. It felt like forever since I'd last seen him. At least I could look forward to seeing him at Helm's Deep...if that even happened. No, that absolutely had to happen. I had to make sure it happened. If the Battle of Helm's Deep didn't happen...who knows how that would affect the rest of the war.

Another question popped into my mind when I thought of Helm's Deep. Would it be possible to stop Haldir from dying there? My heart clenched as the shot of him getting axed in the back and falling to his knees from the movie played in my mind. I didn't want to see him die...but...could that affect the fate of Middle-Earth, too? What would happen if he made it out of that fight alive? Would he return to Lórien, or would he stay with me? If he did stay with me, would it affect the rest of the future events? I ran a hand through my hair and closed my eyes. _I really wish things could be normal. Why can't things be normal now? Why did everything have to change?_

From behind me, I heard light footsteps approaching, and wasn't surprised at all when Legolas sat down next to me. "Can't sleep?" I asked, and he shook his head. "Me either."

"Are you still worried about Kaia?" he asked quietly.

I sighed. "I'll be worried about her until I see her alive and well in front of me again. Of course, there's other stuff on my mind, too."

"That is understandable." There was silence for awhile, until he spoke again. "I cannot imagine how odd it must be to know the future of Middle-Earth."

"Yeah," I nodded. "It's pretty weird." I wasn't entirely into the conversation. To be honest, I wanted to be alone, but I just didn't have the heart to tell him to go away.

"So...you really know almost everything that happens in the future?"

I glanced over at him. "Yeah, most of it. Why?"

He paused for a moment, thinking. "...What happens to Mirkwood? To my father? Does he survive the war?"

I stared at him for a moment. "I...Legolas, I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"You know why I can't," I said, looking away. "I'm not allowed to tell anyone anything about future events. I don't know how it could effect the outcome."

"You cannot even tell me about my own father?"

"You don't need to know anyway," I replied.

I looked over at him, and he looked offended. "I do have a right to know! He is my father, Erin! Please, tell me what happens!"

I shook my head. "I can't."

He stared at me for a moment longer, then his eyes hardened a bit. "Do you not trust me?"

Okay, now he was getting on my nerves. "Legolas, stop. It's not that I don't trust you-"

"Then why won't you answer me?"

"I did answer you. I said no."

He frowned. "If he...he doesn't make it, you do not have to pity me. Just tell me. It would be better to know ahead of time, anyway."

"No!" I finally exclaimed, standing up. "No! It really wouldn't! How can't you understand what I'm telling you? I! Can't! Say! Anything! Get it through your thick head!"

"All I ask is to know the fate of my own people!" he whisper-shouted. "Apparently that is too much to ask of you. You just cannot stand to share your knowledge with others."

I glared at him. "That's not it at all! I'd be happy to tell everyone what I know if it wouldn't completely ruin the ending! You have no idea how much of a burden it is to befriend someone, knowingthat they're going to die in the future, and not say a word."

"Erin, I am not asking for something that dramatic! You're overreacting!"

I scoffed. "Oh, I am? Really? Well, I wouldn't have to stand here yelling at you if you'd just shut up and mind your own business!"

"It is my business! I only wish to know whether or not my father lives! He is not even involved with this war!"

"Legolas, you know very well that every single person in Middle-Earth is involved with this somehow. The storyline is falling apart enough already. I don't want to take anymore risks."

He glared at me. "Fine. If you wish to make this a bigger deal than it needs to be...forget I said anything. I apologize for asking a question," he said sarcastically, turning away.

_Oh heck no. He's not out of this yet. _"Excuse me?" I grabbed his shoulder and spun him back around, seething. "You know, you're not helping the situation at all here! I've already got enough crap to deal with, I don't need your stupidity in my way, too!"

Legolas' eyes flashed, and for a moment he opened his mouth to say something, but at the last moment, he closed it and turned away, angrily walking off.

I spun around too, and plopped back down on the ground where I had been sitting before. Crossing my arms over my chest, I closed my eyes and recalled memories of Haldir and I together in Lórien. "Please hurry up and get here soon."

oOo

We continued traveling to Edoras the next day. Legolas and I still talked to each other, but it wasn't as much as normal. Things were still tense. The rest of our travels went fairly smoothly, until we finally came in sight of Rohan's capital on April fourth. It was an absolutely gorgeous sight, with the one lone hill reaching up higher than all the others. Even from out here I could see the large building that I knew was the Golden Hall.

"Edoras," Gandalf announced, "and the Golden Hall of Meduseld. There dwells Théoden, King of Rohan...whose mind is overthrown. Saruman's hold on the king is now very strong." He looked at all of us seriously. "Be careful what you say. Do not look for welcome here!" With that, he spurred Shadowfax onward, and the rest of us followed suit. We rode swiftly up to the main gates, where a green flag with a white running horse on it floated to the ground nearby. Aragorn looked at it with curiosity, but I was more focused on my new surroundings. The buildings were mostly cottages made from wood, some with a straw roof. It seemed like a it would be a happy place in the glorious afternoon sunlight, but not a single smile was seen on the faces of the people living there was we passed them by. They all looked up at the four strangers riding through town...but with bereft, sorrowful faces, like they had lost all hope and didn't know what to do. My heart went out to them, and I looked down at them apologetically as I passed them.

After a moment, Gimli finally spoke up. "You'd find more cheer in a graveyard." I smacked him upside the head for the rude comment before glancing up at the Golden Hall. Just as I expected, I saw the white form of Éowyn standing at the edge of the stone terrace surrounding it, but I also saw someone there that I didn't remember being next to her in the movies. It looked like a girl with dark hair and a brown dress, but before I could get any more details of her face, Aragorn touched my arm. "Erin," he whispered.

"Yeah?" I turned to him.

"Have you been to Edoras before?"

"Uhh...no," I said. "Not really. Why?"

He shrugged a bit. "You just seemed like you were familiar with this town."

"Oh." I turned away from him and hastily looked back up to where the two women had been standing, but they weren't there anymore. _Oh well. Probably just a servant, or a friend of hers. Or maybe she'd always been there in the movie, and I'd just never noticed her. No big deal. _

We soon arrived at the base of the first set of stairs that led to Meduseld's front doors, where we dismounted our horses. I stepped back once my feet hit the ground and bumped into someone. "Sorry, I..." I trailed off as I turned around and saw that I'd bumped into Legolas, who had also just dismounted Arod. "...Yeah." I quickly turned away to get out of the awkward moment and led Frania away, handing her off to a stable boy before walking up the stairs with my other four companions.

As we reached the top of the stone terrace and approached the two large green front doors with golden detailing, they were flung open, and out walked Hama with an unnecessary amount of guards behind him. I stood by Aragorn as they stopped in front of us. Gandalf smiled at him, but it wasn't returned.

"I cannot allow you before Théoden King so armed, Gandalf Greyhame," he said. "By order of...Grima Wormtongue." I sneered briefly at the name of Rohan's least favorite pedophile.

In any event, Gandalf motioned for us to remove our weapons, and we reluctantly did so. Legolas made a show out of it by twirling his twin knives in his hands as he removed them from his sheath. I unwillingly removed Kaia's twin blades from around my hips and handed them to a guard, giving him a dangerous look. "If you so much as _look _at these the wrong way, I'll break your face." He nodded quickly and stepped away. I then handed over the rest of the weapons I owned, and once the last thing had been turned over to the Rohirric guards, Gandalf smiled at Hama again.

The redheaded officer wasn't satisfied, though. "Your staff."

"Oh.." Gandalf put on his best puppy-dog face. "You would not part an old man from his walking stick."

Hama rolled his eyes, but agreed all the same. Gandalf flashed a secretive wink at Aragorn and I, then took Legolas' arm. The five of us walked in through the double doors. I knew Rohan was meant to be a safe place, but I saw Grima's henchmen already trailing us on the sides, giving us cruel looks as we slowly approached the king's throne. The doors closed behind us with a loud _clang_, and Legolas released Gandalf's arm. I watched the men hidden in the shadows warily.

"The courtesy of your hall is somewhat lessened of late, Théoden King!" Gandalf called out to him.

I gotta admit, Théoden didn't look the best. His hair was grown out too long, thin and scraggly, along with his beard. His face was an ashen, sickly grey color, and his blue eyes were cloudy, with enormous bags under them. He was wrapped up in a large fur robe, slouched up on his throne, looking like a zombie. I looked up as Wormtongue stood up from his place beside the king and walked towards us. "Late...is the hour...in which this conjurer chooses to appear."

"Do not take him for some conjurer of cheap tricks," I said to myself.

"Lathspell I name him. Ill news is an ill guest." The weasel finally stopped right in front of Gandalf, who wasn't happy to see him there at all.

"Be silent!" he commanded. "Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth. I have not passed through fire and death to brandy crooked words with a witless worm." He held his staff up at Grima's face, whose expression quickly turned from cocky to terrified.

"His staff..." he muttered, staring at it with wide eyes. "I _told _you to take the wizard's staff!"

Just like that, his goons sprung out of their hiding places and charged at us. Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, and I instantly started to take them on, throwing punches and kicks left and right to protect Gandalf, who just calmly continued to walk straight forward like a boss. A man came running up to me, a smirk on his face. _I guess he thinks it'll be easy to take me down since I'm a girl. _Before he could do anything, I kneed him in his soft spot and brought him down without mercy. _He thought wrong. _Another one came running up, and I punched him solidly in the face as Gandalf started to speak.

"Théoden, son of Thengel!" The old king looked up at him blankly. "Too long have you sat in the shadows," Gandalf said softly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy coming up at Legolas from behind, but just as he reached the elf and I started to shout, Legolas snapped his arm up and elbowed the dude in the face without even looking.

Gimli kicked another guy down, then growled in fury and pounced on Wormtongue, pinning him down. "I would stay still if I were you." I stepped up next to Aragorn for a better view as all the others in the hall gathered around to see their king.

"Harken to me!" Gandalf demanded. Théoden turned his head slightly, but he didn't seem very happy. The wizard raised a hand and closed his eyes as a brief wind flew through the place. "I release you...from the spell."

But it didn't work. Théoden started laughing cruelly at Gandalf, starting weakly, but ending up with a full-blown cackle. "You have no power here...Gandalf the Grey."

He started laughing again, but at this point Gandalf had had enough. He pulled the grey elvish cloak off of him, his white robes suddenly glowing brightly for all to see. Théoden gave a cry of shock and sat up in his seat. All eyes in the room turned to him.

"I will draw you, Saruman, as poison is drawn from a wound." He thrust his staff forward, pushing the king back even farther into his throne. As he stepped closer, glowing and revealing his power to all, I couldn't help but think that he is what God might look like. Théoden/Saruman struggled against his power, but to no avail.

Suddenly, I saw Éowyn rush forward, only to be stopped at the last second when Aragorn latched onto her arm. "Wait," he whispered. She looked at him uncertainly, but didn't struggle.

Now it was Saruman's dark voice that came from the king's mouth. "If I go...Théoden dies!"

Gandalf shoved him back again. "You did not kill me...you will not kill him!"

Again, Théoden/Saruman tried to push back against Gandalf's power. "...Rohan is _mine_," he sneered.

Again, Gandalf shoved him backwards with force, making the throne rock slightly. "Begone!"

Théoden/Saruman turned his head, waited, and then made one final lunge at Gandalf, actually mustering up the strength to jump out of his chair. Thankfully, Gandalf was stronger, as as soon as the king jumped, he thrust his staff forward one last time, making it seem like the king hit an invisible rubber wall as he bounced back into his seat.

There was a moment of silence and Gandalf caught his breath and the people behind him waited anxiously. Finally, with a weary groan, the king started to slump forward and fall out of his chair. At this point, Aragorn let Éowyn go, who ran right up to her uncle and caught him just as he toppled forward. She straightened him up in his seat again, and the rest of us watched in awe as years of age and time literally drained from his face. It was like rewinding a tape of his life. He took deep, shuddering breaths as the color returned to his face, his hair shortened and grew healthy again, and his blue eyes actually looked blue and full of life once more. His gaze flicked back and forth, as if he couldn't remember what had just happened. Finally, he spoke.

"...I know your face," he said to his niece, who was smiling happily at him. "Éowyn...Éowyn." A moment later, he noticed the wizard standing in front of him. "Gandalf?" he asked.

He smiled. "Breathe the free air again, my friend."

With some effort, the king rose to his feet, and there before us all stood King Théoden of Rohan, in all his glory. He looked around the main room of the Golden Hall. "Dark have been my dreams of late," he said quietly. He lifted a hand and looked at it in awe, like he couldn't believe he had fingers.

"Your fingers would remember their own strength better," Gandalf prompted him, "if they grasped your sword."

Someone brought it forward, and slowly, the king slid his hand over the pommel and pulled it out of its sheath, holding it up in the air as it glinted in the light. There was silence again as the people around us stood staring at their king, in shock that he was actually alive. After a moment, his expression changed from awe to realization, and then anger. He looked at Grima with a rage in his eyes. "Get this foul traitor out of my halls," he said calmly. His men gladly took the order, and together they picked him up from the ground, taking him off of Gimli's hands.

We all moved outside to watch as the Rohan men lifted Wormtongue up and tossed him down the stone stairs, watching was he tumbled down them, landing at the bottom with a bloody lip and cries of pain. The slimy man fearfully crawled backwards on his hands, trying to plead his case. "I've only...ever...served you, my lord!"

Théoden wasn't buying it. "Your witchcraft...would've had me crawling on all fours like a beast!" He stepped closer, sword in hand.

"Send me not from your sight!" he pleaded one last time.

The king swung his sword n a high arc, ready to make him lose a head, but then Aragorn ran forward from his place beside me and grabbed his arms, stopping him. "No my lord! No, my lord! Let him go! Enough blood has been spilt on his account."

Théoden looked at him curiously for a moment, but obeyed.

"Get out of my way!" Grima shouted as he shoved his way through the crowds to escape.

"Hail, Théoden King!" someone shouted, and instantly everyone dropped to their knees in honor of their newly awakened ruler. It should've been a very happy moment for the people of Rohan, and it would've been if Théoden hadn't realized a crucial detail right then.

Turning to those around him, he frowned. "...Where is Théodred? Where is my son?"

oOo

I walked through the halls of Meduseld, feeling distant. The funeral for Théodred was to be held in four days, and even though I didn't know the guy, for some reason I still felt really sad about it. I guess it was because I knew that the people of Rohan had lost an important person to them...and Théoden had lost his only child.

In a few minutes, I reached the door that was supposedly my room, and I walked in to find it empty and clean for me. My mood improved by a bajillion when I caught sight of a bathroom through another doorway just off to the side, and the first thing I did was run in there and wash myself like my life depended on it. After about forty-five minutes of absolute bliss, I stepped out of the bathroom with soaking wet hair and quickly grabbed a new dress to change into. It was a solid, deep red color with brown trim on the wide sleeve cuffs and hem that was dotted with gold. My hair was pulled back into a low, smooth bun, with my bangs pushed off to the side, and my necklace from Haldir hung proudly from my neck. I stepped out of my room late in the afternoon, refreshed and ready to find some food.

I had made it back to the main throne room of Meduseld and was about to go over to Aragorn and the others who I'd spied sitting at a table, when suddenly I saw the girl with the dark hair and brown dress that I'd noticed on the terrace with Éowyn before. She looked to be no more than a servant girl, bent over and busy clearing dishes off of a table and putting them into a basket, but something seemed different about her. Without thinking, I walked over and tapper her on the shoulder. "Uhh...excuse me."

She jumped a bit, but stood up and turned around. She was tall, a good three inches or so taller than me, with short, dark brown hair that was borderline black. It was a simple, straight cut that framed her pale face, where two deep brown eyes stared straight back at me curiously. "...You look familiar..." she said. "Have we met?"

As soon as I heard her voice, my jaw dropped. I knew this girl! "...Kathryn? You're here, too?"

She blinked. "How do you know my name?"

"Kathryn, it's me! Erin!" I said, my excitement growing. She'd been my second closest friend back on Earth, right after Kaia. "You know...Smosh fangirling...awkward fanfics...Lord of the Rings sleepover?"

Now her jaw dropped. "Oh my GOD! Erin!" She grinned at me, then shouted "BRING AMBERLAMPS!" at the top of her lungs.

"AMBERLAMPS COMING!" I shouted back. Then in unison, we both made siren noises. "WEE-OO WEE-OO WEE-OO!" We burst out laughing, not caring about the crazy looks we were getting from others, and hugged each other tightly. "Oh my gosh!" I squealed. "You're here! How are you here? This is so awesome!"

"Dude, what the firetruck? I missed you, Dashie! How are you here?" she asked.

"I missed you too! I...oh my goodness, Kathryn, I have so much to tell you! Come on!" I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her through the halls, headed back to my room.

Suddenly, I heard Aragorn shout my name. "Erin!" I looked over to see him staring at me like I was insane. "Where are you going? Who is she?"

Kathryn's eyes widened. "Dude! It's...uh...uh...that guy!" She pointed at Aragorn, who looked at her nervously.

I laughed. "You fail, Kathryn. That's Aragorn. Aragorn, this is Kathryn." Kathryn waved at him like a sped, and I laughed even harder. "Oh my word, dude! Come on! This is insane! You gotta listen to everything that's happened to me!" I grabbed my best friend again and tugged her towards my bedroom, where we would gladly spend the majority of our evening talking about our adventures of the past together.

**A/N: Yay! New character! :D And yes, Kathryn is a real-life friend of mine. :3 She's already known for awhile now that she was gonna be in this story, and she kept asking me "So when am I gonna be in the LotR fanfic of yours?" XD Well, now she's finally made her entrance. And now all of Edoras probably thinks we're high. Lolz. (If you get the whole "bring amberlamps" joke, you're awesome. :D) But on the flipside...we got some drama going on here. D: Legolas and Erin are fighting again, and now Kaia's been recaptured and taken...TO ISENGARD, TO ISENGARD! G-G-G-GARD! Lol okay, I'll stop. XD**

**Don't forget to review! :3 It makes me smile.**

**~Erin**


	6. Meet Kathryn

**A/N: Apparently my laptop is almost indestructible, because I spilled water all over it tonight and the only thing that broke was my track pad. O_o I got a normal mouse to replace it, thought, so we're all good. :) Enjoy the update! :D **

**Oh, and to Nadia Leigh: I actually don't watch the Olympics. XD So I'm not really rooting for any team.**

Staying Strong: Chapter Six

Kathryn's POV

So...how would you feel if one of your best friends suddenly appeared out of nowhere in a world where you thought you were completely alone? Because I was pretty darn happy.

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Erin at first. She'd changed so much! She was tanner than she used to be, a bit taller and leaner, and her bangs had grown out. I assumed her hair was a lot longer, too. She pulled me into a room in the Golden Hall and plopped me down on the bed next to her, eyes shining with excitement. "So?" she asked as soon as we sat down. "What's your story?"

"Woah, woah, woah," I said. "Woah. You tell me your side of it first. How the heck did you get here? Cause last time I checked, you didn't live in Rohan."

She grinned. "Okay, fine. I'll tell you." From there, she told me this really long and detailed story about how she'd arrived in Middle-Earth about a year ago, had been running around with Legolas in Mirkwood for awhile, then ended up in Rivendell, where she met Kaia.

That was news to me. "Kaia? She's here, too?"

"Yeah!" Erin exclaimed, but after that it seemed like the happiness in her eyes dimmed a little.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She bit her lip. "I...hang on a second. Let me finish my story." Then she talked about how she and Kaia had joined the Fellowship of the Ring, went on that big awesome journey, about how she was dating Haldir now, how Boromir and Merry died, her forcing Kaia to go with Pippin, and ended with her arrival in Rohan and meeting me. "From there...you know the rest," she said.

"Okay, okay," I said, thinking for a minute. "I think I get it now. But...where's Kaia now?"

Erin sighed. "I...I don't know. I thought she was still with Pippin, but when we met Gandalf in Fangorn Forest, he said he hadn't seen Kaia at all. Only Pippin."

My eyes widened a bit. "So...she's lost out there somewhere?"

"I have no idea." It was silent for a moment, until Erin spoke up again. "And to make matters worse, now that Merry's gone, I don't know if certain events that are supposed to happen in the movie of this will happen or not." She sighed. "It sucks. I feel like I'm worrying about it too much, but...at the same time, it's like, should I just sit back and let things happen on their own?" She looked up at me. "I just don't know what to do."

I shrugged, then changed the subject. "I'm surprised you went with Haldir instead of Legolas. You were always so obsessed with him back home."

She laughed to herself. "That's what Kaia said when I told her that Legolas and I were just friends. I don't know, I just...I guess I like him better as a friend, now that I've known him for so long."

I shot her a creepy smile. "Not if I have anything to do with it."

"Oh, shut up," she said, slapping my arm.

I laughed. "Fine, fine. I won't meddle unless I have to."

Erin smiled a bit, then looked away again. "Actually, things are kind of tense between us now. Legolas kept asking me to tell him the future about his dad and his homeland on our way here, and I told him no."

I frowned. "You can't tell him that kind of stuff?"

She shook her head. "I can't tell anyone, Kathryn. Not even you. Sorry," she added at the end.

I waved it off. "No biggie."

"Now then," she said with a smile, shifting positions on the bed, "why don't you tell me how you got here? What have you been up to...and when did you arrive, first of all?"

"Woman! Stop with the questions!" I smiled, and Erin rolled her eyes. "Okay, let me think. I got here in...June of last year. It's April now, so...I've been here for ten months or so."

"And you've been in Rohan all this time?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I work here in the Golden Hall as a servant for the royal family, but mostly Éowyn. We're pretty close friends, though."

"Awesome, awesome," Erin said, nodding. "So...have you had any adventures so far?"

"Not really," I said, fake frowning. "Forever alone."

Erin laughed and did a slow clap for me. "Oh my gosh, I remember that! Forever alone...that's great." She laughed again, and then calmed down. "Has any guy caught your eye lately?" She nudged me with her elbow knowingly.

"Screw you," I said, and we both grinned. "Actually...there is one guy."

Erin raised an eyebrow. "Really? Who is it?"

I hesitated. "Well..."

oOo

_Flashback to earlier that January..._

I finished hanging the last of Éowyn's dresses out to dry, then stepped back and smiled a bit as I looked at them. _God, her dresses are so pretty. I should try and save up for a fancy one sometime. _I glanced down at my own worn brown dress and tugged at the fabric of the sleeve. It wasn't that I was unsatisfied with what I had...Actually, I considered myself lucky compared to others that live in the town of Edoras. I had seen it all, from the rich to the poor. I was perfectly fine with being Éowyn's servant, I just wished I had other stuff to wear than the same five or six dresses over and over.

All of a sudden, I heard someone shout my name from inside Meduseld. "Kathryn!"

I jumped and looked over to the back door to see the servants' boss, Elric, sticking his head out of the door with an unamused face. _He always has an unamused face, _I thought to myself. "My name!"

"Where are you supposed to be at this moment, young lady?"

I frowned. _The frick? I thought I was on schedule! _"What time is it?"

"It is exactly three in the afternoon! Do you not remember where Prince Théodred asked you to be at this point in time?"

_Oh, shoot! _"Sorry!" I cried, picking up my skirts and running for the door, almost colliding with Elric in the process. "Lost track of time!" Without waiting to hear his response, I started running again, then caught myself, remembered how I was supposed to act, and started making my way towards the stables in the most ladylike speedwalk I could manage. _I swear, no matte how many times they drill it into my head, I will never get all of the customs and manners and rules of being a woman here memorized._

Eventually, I arrived at the pride and joy of Rohan, the place where they kept their horses. I would easily bet that it was just as well-kept and taken care of as the Golden Hall itself. Horses were treated like kings here, something I'd gotten quite used to after about a month of living here. I looked around wildly, wondering if I'd already missed the guest that Théodred had said was arriving today. He didn't say who it was exactly, just that he was from Gondor to talk about politics and other boring stuff. There was no one who fit that description in there. In fact, the only person in the entire stable besides myself was a man only a bit taller than I, with short, reddish hair that fell in waves to his chin, which was covered by a bit of stubble. He looked young, but I couldn't have guessed his age if someone had asked it of me. He was dressed in normal clothes, so I assumed he was a stable hand that I'd just never met before. He looked like he could be one, the way he was stroking the mane of a horse that was in the stall in front of him.

I walked up to the man. "Hey," I said quickly, "has anyone else shown up here yet?"

He turned to me and looked at me for a moment, studying my face. His eyes were a pretty shade of blue, I noticed. When he spoke, his voice was kind and gentle. "I have not seen another pass by. Why do you ask?"

I relaxed a bit and leaned up against the wall of one of the stables. "I'm supposed to be here for the arrival of some traveler guy from Gondor. He was supposed to come today, and Prince Théodred asked me to help him put away his horse when he showed up."

The man raised an eyebrow. "I don't think you need to worry about that anymore."

I looked over at him oddly. "Why not?"

He chuckled. "I have already taken care of my own horse. You did not need to come and help."

My face flushed. "Oh God...you're the one from Gondor, aren't you?" _Crap...Théodred said he was someone important, too! Manners Kathryn, manners! _"Uh, I-I mean.." I straightened up and brushed the dirt off of my dress. "My apologies, my lord. I'm so sorry I was late to my duties...uh, sir."

He laughed, making me redden even more. "My lady, it is fine. There is no need for you to worry, I assure you."

"Seriously?"

He nodded. "And please, do not feel like you need to act proper in front of me. I thought that perhaps I could get away from that when I came here."

I hesitated for a moment to see if he was serious, then finally relaxed again. "Cool. Uhh...thank you!"

He extended a hand, which I shook. "I don't believe we've met. I am Faramir, son of Denethor."

"Denethor? Like...the steward Denethor?" I asked. He nodded. "Oh! Then I guess you're pretty important!" He laughed. "I'm Kathryn. I live here."

Faramir smiled at me. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Lady Kathryn."

I smiled back. "The pleasure is all mine."

oOo

_Flashback to later on, in mid-February..._

"Faramir!" I yelled, running through the Golden Hall and not caring about being proper as I tackled my best friend in a hug. "Don't you dare think about leaving without saying goodbye to me!"

I didn't even have to look to see him grinning. "How could I forget about you, dear Kathryn? You're the one that has made my life so hectic this past month."

I pulled away to look at him, smiling. "Oh, shut up." He laughed, and I got a fuzzy feeling in my stomach when I saw his eyes sparkle. "Don't die on the way back, you hear me?"

"I will try my best to survive," he said. He started walking away to the stables, and I watched him go for a second, then ran to catch up with him again, deciding to tag along.

"Faramir..." I said, a bit softer. I wanted to tell him so many things, but couldn't settle on just one. He looked over at me, expecting me to finish, and after a moment, I awkwardly looked away. We walked in silence for awhile as I mentally kicked myself. _You're so horrible with men, Kathryn. It's not like you were gonna tell him he looked sexy or anything...you're just gonna say goodbye. That's it. No kisses...although, that would be kind of awesome...No! No, that's moving too fast! Or is it? God, I don't know!_

When we reached the stables, Faramir stopped walking at his stall and turned to face me. "Kathryn, I..." I looked up at him as he looked at his feet. _Dude...is he finally gonna say something? Oh Lord, how I've been waiting for this..._

"...I will miss you terribly."

On the inside, my hopes were squished flat like a pancake, but I tried my best to not let him see it. "Yeah, same here. But you knew that already."

He nodded. "I do not know when I will return...that is, _if _I will return. Middle-Earth is more dangerous than it used to be. Sauron is growing stronger." Both of us glanced out the door in the direction of Mordor. We couldn't actually see it from here, but everyone knew where it was anyway.

"Faramir, please," I said sincerely to him, and he looked back at me again. My heart raced wildly as I took a wild move and reached for his hand. Gripping it gently, I whispered "...Promise me we'll see each other again, okay?"

He nodded again. "I promise."

"Good." Again, we stood there in a moment of awkward silence. For the longest time, I thought that maybe, just maybe...he would kiss me. _C'mon, man...show me there's something there..._

But my heart sank as he pulled his hand out of mine and stepped back. "Well, I...I should be off. Father will be unhappy if I am too late to return home." I said nothing as he mounted his horse, just stepped back and watched him as he locked eyes with me for a fleeting moment. "Farewell, Kathryn." With that, he kicked his horse into action, and before I knew it he was out of the stables...our of my sight.

Once he was gone, I sighed and put my head in my hands as I sunk to the ground. "Is he even worth it? Am I going after someone who doesn't even like me back?"

_End flashback_

oOo

Erin's POV

As Kathryn finished recalling stuff from the past, I looked at her sadly. "Dude...I'm sorry." I hugged her close for a minute, then let go. "I wish I could help you with your guy problems, but I honestly have no experience with that kind of situation. How long has it been since you've last seen him?"

She sighed. "That last thing I told you about was the last time I saw him...about two months ago. I'm sure he's back home by now, but..." Kathryn flopped backwards onto the bed. "I just don't know what to do! One minute I think he likes me, the next there's just nothing but awkward tension. There's so many mixed signals."

I felt bad for Kathryn, I really did. "Aww...that sucks. Now I really wish I could help you out."

"It's fine. I'll deal with it eventually. I just hope he doesn't leave me hanging like he did when he left Edoras forever, you know?"

I nodded. "Yeah." In an attempt to lighten the mood, I stood up. "Well, I don't know about you, but all this storytelling's made me pretty hungry. You wanna go get something to eat?"

"Sure." She pulled herself up off the bed, and the two of us made our way back out into the main throne room. I guess we hadn't been gone for too long, because Aragorn and Gimli were still sitting at that same table, playing chess. Legolas was nowhere to be seen, though.

When Kathryn walked up to them, she took one look at the chessboard and smirked at Gimli. "You're not doing so hot."

He shot a glance up at her, but just grumbled to himself in Dwarvish as Aragorn check-mate'd him...for the fifth time. I laughed. "Gimli, that's Kathryn. Don't worry about her, she picks on me too. Aragorn, you've kind of already met her... Kathryn, this is Aragorn and Gimli, obviously. We've traveled together."

Thankfully, Kathryn had taken the same precautions as me and hadn't told anyone about her being from another world, so she played along. "Hi."

Aragorn looked up at me as Gimli made his move. "I thought you had never been to Edoras before."

"I haven't," I said. "Kathryn used to live in Minas Tirith when I was there. She moved here some time ago with her parents."

"We didn't move here directly," she corrected me. "We moved to a small village not far away with my sister. My parents were split up, so it was just me, my mom, and her, and they were both lost in a house fire awhile ago. Then I came here."

Aragorn looked at her sympathetically. "I am sorry for your loss, Lady Kathryn."

"You don't have to call me 'lady,'" she said with a smile. "I'm just a servant. And it's fine. You weren't the cause of it."

He nodded, and then I spoke up, changing the subject. "Any of you guys know when dinner is? I'm starving."

"In about an hour," Aragorn said calmly, moving his next piece over a space.

"An hour too long, if you ask me," Gimli grumbled. I laughed.

Kathryn exhaled and looked at us all. "Well, I hate to leave you guys so soon, but I've got stuff to do. Elric's been a real stickler lately about me being late for stuff."

I frowned. "Elric?"

"My boss," she explained. "Well, besides Éowyn and Théoden, anyway." She stepped around the table and gave me a hug. "Well bye!"

I smiled and returned it. "See ya, Kathryn." My friend walked off, heading across the main room and disappearing into one of the hallways at the back. I watched her go, the smile never leaving my face. _Now I've got two of my closest friends in this with me. Could life get any better?_

oOo

Although I was incredibly happy that I'd been reunited with Kathryn, the mood of Edoras as a whole was still grim and sad. Understandable, of course. After all, they'd just lost their prince not too long ago. I had been asked by Kathryn to go to the funeral with her and Éowyn, and now the three of us stood side by side at the head of the massive crowd that had gathered to see Prince Théodred for the last time. The entrance to his tomb was just to our right, and Kathryn stood in the middle of Éowyn and I. I'd been able to personally meet the White Lady of Rohan earlier that morning, and already I liked her. She'd been one of my favorite characters back home. The three of us each wore black dresses, though obviously Éowyn's was a bit fancier than ours. Kathryn's was solid black with no fancy accessories, just a long gown made of a soft material. I also wore a black dress with shorter sleeves and a thin silver belt. My hair hung straight down my back.

Everyone was silent as the funeral procession started to make their way towards our section. People lined the streets of Edoras on both sides, crammed together, but not caring as they mourned for their loss. Several guards came into view around the bend, each of them carrying the stretcher that bore the son of the king on it. Their steps were slow and careful, and I looked up at the young man who's life had tragically been cut short. I knew the story already – he'd been out on a mission to get rid of a band of Saruman's Uruk-Hai with other men, and they had been terribly outnumbered. Now he was dressed fully in his Rohirric armor, looking so peaceful with his hand folded on his chest, gripping his sword and a small bundle of white flowers.

King Théoden was right behind them, with a black cloak lined in thick fur wrapped about his shoulders. He had a completely blank expression on his face, still unbelieving that his only son and heir was gone. Gandalf was next, also silent and somber. After him came Aragorn and Legolas, side by side, followed by several men and women that had been close with the royal family in the past. I watched them as Éowyn took shaky, deep breaths beside me, trying desperately not to burst out sobbing as they grew closer.

As I looked at Théodred's body, I suddenly remembered the conversation Kaia and I'd had back when we first met in Rivendell...when she'd told me about the semi-funeral that my family held for me when I'd disappeared. _Is this what my family and friends went through? Did my parents- _My breath caught at the memory of them. _…They would've been worse. _

Finally, the soldiers reached the square entrance to the prince's tomb and slowly lined the stretcher up with it. As they prepared to lower him in, Éowyn began to sing, her voice shaking with every Rohirric word. _"Bealocwelm...hafad fréone frecan forth onsended...giedd sculon singan gléomenn sorgiende...on Meduselde...thæt he ma no wære...his dryhtne dyrest...and maga deorost. Bealo..." _(An evil death...has set forth the noble warrior...a song shall sing sorrowing minstrels...in Meduseld...that he is no more...to his lord dearest...and most beloved. And evil death...)

As the stretcher moved past us an into the tomb, memories of my parents suddenly filled my mind. I remembered my dad reading to me on his lap when I was just a toddler...my mom giving me balloons for my first birthday...them sending me of to first grade...me hugging my mom tightly when we heard from my dad that his father had just died...sitting with them both and crying into my dad's shirt at the death of my mom's father a year later...constantly fighting with my mom in my early teenage years...everything. As Éowyn's song ended, I envisioned my home church, a closed casket at the front, and my parents weeping in the first seats at the apparent loss of their only daughter. Théoden's quote on his own son's death rang loudly in my mind. _'No parent should have to bury their child.' _

Hearing that in my head was enough to break me. Tears instantly blurred my vision, and I did nothing to wipe them away. All I did was hang my head and cry as a mental image of my father with a gun to his head entered my mind. I sobbed as I felt Kathryn's hand on my back. _I would give anything to have them alive again. _My body shuddered, and I cried even more as Kathryn hugged me from the side. I knew that whether I went back to Earth in the future or not, I would never see them again. And I'd never even had the chance to say goodbye.


	7. Happy Birthday!

Staying Strong: Chapter Seven

Erin's POV

"Eeeeeeeerinnnnnnn!"

My eyes snapped open as something really big landed on top of me, smashing me into the mattress of my bed. I screamed and thrashed around in my bed, trying to get the thing off of me. When I finally flipped over onto my back and looked up, I saw Kathryn there, having draped herself across my legs. "Oh good, you're awake!"

I deadpanned. "Seriously, Kathryn? You jumped on top of me to wake me up?"

She ignored my question, instead choosing to leap forward and glomp me. "Happy birthday!"

I looked at her with a 'wtf' look as she pulled away. "Uhh, Kathryn? My birthday's on March thirteenth, not April thirteenth."

"I know, but this year was a special birthday, right? You're eighteen now!"

I blinked. Quite honestly, I'd forgotten about that. "Oh yeah...I guess I am."

"You're finally a woman!" Kathryn seemed way more excited about this than I did. "Now get dressed! We've gotta celebrate somehow, even if it is a month late!"

I smiled at her and pulled myself out from under the covers. "Okay, okay! Chill out, Kathryn! Give me a minute to pick something out."

"Oh, no! I'm helping!" she insisted.

I laughed. "Alright." Standing up and spreading my arms apart, I winked. "Have at me!"

Kathryn laughed too, and went to work. Within an hour I was washed, dressed, and ready to go. Kathryn had picked out what we both thought was the prettiest spare dress that I'd brought along. It was a deep purple, almost eggplant kind of color on the top layer, which slowly got more and more transparent as it went down the dress. The under layer was a solid white, and the neckline was a simple scooped one that wasn't too low, but not too high either. The sleeves were the same dark purple color, and they were long, hugging my arms tightly until my elbows, where they belled out from there into huge, swishy sleeves that were loose and incredibly comfortable. In various places on the dress, there was an intricate swirling pattern in a lighter purple, so small that you couldn't notice it from far away. Kathryn dried my hair in braids after it had been washed, and when she took them out my hair fell down to my stomach in loose, flowy waves. She arranged a few shorter locks around my face, then took two sections of the front of my hair and twisted them, connecting them at the back of my head. I put on my necklace, then looked at myself in the mirror.

"You look awesome," Kathryn said, grinning.

I beamed, too, then spun around and hugged her. "You're so amazing. Thank you."

"No problem. Now let's get out there and show you off!"

I laughed, and the two of us headed out of my room and into the main hall. Once there, I noticed the rest of the guys were also up and eating breakfast together. I smiled and walked up to them. "Hey guys!"  
Aragorn looked up at me and smiled a bit. "Hello, Erin. You look wonderful." Legolas and Gimli both nodded in agreement.

"Thanks," I said. "Kathryn helped."

"And you know why?" my friend piped up from behind me. "Because her birthday was forever ago, and now we've gotta celebrate it! She's eighteen now!"

The three men smiled and each said happy birthday to me. I thanked them. "It doesn't feel much different," I said. They laughed.

"Would I have known that your birthday had already passed, I would've said something sooner," Aragorn said.

I shook my head. "Nah, it's fine. We had a lot going on at the time."

"And now you finally get to celebrate," Kathryn said, grabbing my arm. "Come on! I wanna take you out for the day...just the two of us."

I beamed at her. "Sounds awesome!" I then turned and waved goodbye to the others as I was once again dragged away. Kathryn led us out of Meduseld, and we spent the day running around to various places in the town, goofing off and having fun. We even went out and bought a cake to eat at the end of the day.

After hours upon hours of fun, we finally settled down at an outdoor table at one of Edoras' restaurants, and Kathryn set the cake on the table. We both cut ourselves a piece and speared a chunk with our forks. "To being eighteen!" I said with a smile. We tapped our bites together and ate them, watching as the sun slipped beneath the horizon and turned the sky beautiful shades of pink, blue, and orange.

"So..." Kathryn said after a moment.

"So..." I replied. "...What's your plan for the future?"

She looked at me, confused. "What do you mean?"

"As in, like..." I glanced around to make sure no one was terribly close so that they could hear me, then lowered my voice anyway. "You know, when we leave for the Battle of Helm's Deep and all that." Still I got a blank look. "The battle with ten thousand bad guys at the castle place in the mountain."

"Oh!" she exclaimed, finally catching on. "I don't know. I guess I'll have to come with you guys."

"Well, duh," I said with a smile, but then I got serious again. "I mean, were you planning on fighting with us?"

Kathryn looked at me like I was crazy. "You're kidding, right? I haven't so much as touched a sword or bow or anything since I've come here. The only thing I'd be comfortable fighting with is a lightsaber, and I'm pretty sure those don't exist here."

I laughed. "You always were much more of a Star Wars nerd."

She puffed out her chest. "Haters gonna hate." We both laughed.

"Well," I said, "if you want to, I can train you. We'll have plenty of free time once we're on the road."

Kathryn didn't look too excited about the idea of that, but nodded anyway. "Sure! Do you know when we're supposed to leave?"

I shook my head. "And even if I did, I can't really say anything. Telling people the future is just...too risky. Things are complicated enough now as it is."

She nodded. "Gotcha. Hey, we should probably head back to Meduseld now. It's getting dark."

I glanced around. She had a point. "Okay. Let's go." We quickly finished off the rest of our small cake, then started the trek back to the Golden Hall. We got there pretty quickly, and then Kathryn went off a different way, saying that she had other servants stuff to do before the night was over.

I was about halfway back to my room, having just entered the hallway that it was in, when I frowned. "Legolas? What are you doing?" Said elf was standing at the door of my room, and he looked over in surprise when he heard my voice.

"So you have returned,"he said, turning to me. "I wanted to talk to you...if you do not mind, that is."

I nodded, still a bit confused. "Sure." I went over and opened the door, allowing the two of us to slip inside. Once we were in, he closed the door behind him and turned to face me as I sat in a chair by my window. "So...what's up?"

He exhaled. "I...I wanted to talk about our argument several days ago."

_I should've known. _"Okay. Go for it."

"I just...I do not understand," he said. "Why do you refuse to tell me anything? Do you not trust me?"

"Legolas, you know I do trust you. You're one of the closest friends I have," I said sincerely. "I just can't risk telling anyone anything at all. It would be too risky."

"I swear, I would tell no other!" he pleaded. "I would respect your wishes and keep it a secret."

"I know that you'd try," I said, "but what if somehow you got kidnapped by the Enemy, and they tortured you or something to try and get information?" He didn't answer immediately. "I do have faith in you, Legolas. I just...don't have faith in everyone in Middle-Earth."

He paused before saying anything. "...But my father does not play an important role in this war!"

"You don't know that."

He let out a frustrated sigh. "Why are you so paranoid about this?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"You are so worried that everything is going to fall apart if you so much as move. Why? We are not anywhere near Mirkwood, Erin! I do not see how it could do any harm!"

"Legolas, don't push me," I warned. "You might not understand, but I do. Just trust me in this. Please."

"Why?" he asked again, angry now. "Why should I trust you if you cannot trust me with the smallest piece of information? You know that I would never allow myself to be kidnapped by the Enemy."

"I don't..." I struggled to find a retort to that. Finally, I just raised my hands in surrender. "You know what? I give up. I'm not gonna stand here and argue with you about this anymore. Get out, and don't speak to me again until you realize that you're wrong here," I said icily.

Legolas looked at me for a moment, like he didn't believe what I said. "Pardon?"

"You heard me," I said. "Get out, and don't speak to me again. Leave. Now."

He looked at me a moment longer. "...You're bluffing."

"Try me." We stared each other down for a minute longer, until he finally turned away and stormed out, loudly slamming the door shut behind him. I sighed and stood up, walking over to my bed. _Great. Now I've just lost my best friend. All because of a stupid argument. Things don't seem like they're gonna get better anytime soon. _

_ ...I hope I'm wrong._

oOo

Kaia's POV

I sat in the corner of a cold, dark, dank cell, beneath the base of Saruman's tower. I'd been locked up in this thing for God knows how long...a few days, I think? I didn't even know. Saruman had the sense to remove the last short sword that I'd previously carried on my back, which was now hanging on the wall, just outside of my cell, taunting me. _God, if I could have that thing back for even an hour... _After his first little torturing session, which lasted about half an hour, I'd been taken down into this cramped little thing. It was so small, I seriously didn't even have enough room to stand up or fully lie down in it. It was super dark, too, the only light coming from one lone torch that was mounted on the wall next to my sword.

Currently, I was scanning my body and checking out the various bruises I'd received from being smashed onto the ground repeatedly. I hadn't broken anything – thank God – but my entire body ached terribly. I felt so weak. I hated it. I'd already tried to get out of this damned cell, but the bars were solid iron. There was no way I was getting out of this. _At least my wrists aren't tied together anymore. _I gently touched the area of skin that had been rubbed raw from weeks of rough rope digging into them and hissed when it stung.

I stared blankly at the flames of the torch as they danced, casting odd shadows along the wall. I'd honestly never felt more depressed in my life as I did right then. I felt completely hopeless. I hadn't the slightest idea how I was going to get out of this. No one probably even knew I was here. I thought of Erin, and knew she was probably flipping tables right now because she didn't know where I was. If only I could just contact someone...anyone...

Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming down the stairway, and looked over at the base of the steps that I could see. A light slowly grew stronger as the steps neared my floor, and before long, Saruman appeared from the arched hallway, followed by a man that I'd never seen before. He was thin, with pale skin that was literally white, and blue eyes that looked bland and sickly. His hair was jet-black, and fell in short, greasy waves around his face. He was dressed in black robes, and he was the one carrying the torch.

As the wizard and this new kid reached my cell, I glared at them. "Open the cell," Saruman ordered. The greasy guy pulled a ring of keys from within his robes, stuck them in the rusty lock, and with a creak, the door to the cell soon swung inwards. "Get up," Saruman hissed at me. Reluctantly, I obeyed. After all, I had nothing else to do. As soon as I stepped out, Saruman locked a pair of metal shackles around my wrists again, and I sighed as he turned and headed back up the stairs. "Come."

I followed, but I really wanted to punch him in the face. His assistant followed behind me, and the three of us walked in silence, going through many floors and flights of stairs, but...we went downwards, not upwards. When we finally stopped, we were in a chamber beneath the earth that was bare of any decoration, save for a small furnace, a chair, and a few objects hidden in the shadows. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of dirt, and the air had a musty smell. Saruman pulled the chair in front of the furnace, then turned to his servant. "Tie her to the chair."

Without a word, the guy obeyed, and quickly grabbed my arm, dragging me over and plopping me in the chair. Saruman kept a close eye on me was the servant fetched some metal chains from in the corner, wrapping them tightly around my upper and lower body so that I couldn't move. He didn't wrap my arms up, though. They stayed free.

Once he was done, Saruman reached forward and opened a small door on the side of the furnace. When he swung it back, I could see the red-hot coals glowing inside, a blast of heat hitting me in the face. I tensed, knowing where this was going as he reached for a pole with an oddly-shaped tip and stuck it deep into the coals. "Now then. I can see that our last little _encounter _did not faze you." I gave no response. "Perhaps this time my methods will be a bit more effective."

_Whatever you do, _I said to myself, _don't say Erin's name. Don't tell him about her. At all. If he finds her, we're all screwed. _

"Grima, shut that door," Saruman said to his servant. _Oh, so that's his name. Grima. _Once that had been done, Saruman knelt down close to me. "Kaia...I will ask this of you again. Where is the One Ring?" I didn't answer. "Who is the Ringbearer?" No response. "Where is he right now?" After about a minute of long, tense silence, he scowled and set his staff aside, reaching to pull the pole out of the furnace by the wooden handle. I looked up at the tip of it, which glowed bright red. I won't lie, it did freak me out a bit and got my pulse going. I said nothing as he moved it in front of my face. "Do you know what this is?" I nodded. "Will you answer my questions now?" I hesitated for a long moment...and finally shook my head.

Without warning, Saruman grabbed my left arm and pressed the tip of the metal pole deep into my skin. As soon as it came in contact with my arm, I screamed in pain. I could feel my flesh burning and sizzling under that thing. It hurt like nothing I've ever experienced before. Tears sprung into my eyes, and I squeezed them shut, shaking. It took all I had to keep my mouth shut.

Saruman wasn't happy. "Answer me!" He shoved it deeper into my skin, and I screamed again in agony. My arm was shaking badly. I opened my eyes, horrified at the smell of burned flesh and the sight of smoke rising from the brand as it was pressed into my wrist.

After about a minute and a half of the torture, Saruman finally removed the brand from my wrist, and I yanked my arm away from him, whimpering in pain. I tenderly flipped my arm over, and nearly cried when I saw what he'd branded me with. The White Hand of Saruman. The hand was burned, sizzling flesh, and it still stung like it was on fire. I glanced over at Grima, still trembling, and he showed no emotion on his face. _Bastards, _I swore in my mind. _The both of them. _

The white wizard stuck the brand back into the furnace, then grabbed my arm again, branded side up. "I demand answers! Tell me what you know!" He smacked the fresh burn as hard as he could, and I bent over a bit, crying out in pain, but saying no words to him.

Finally, he got fed up with me. "Insolent wench!" he spat, grabbing the brand out of the furnace again. I pulled my arm away, fearing that I would try and brand be again, but instead he tossed the branding pole aside, grabbed an extra length of chain that was on the floor, and tossed it in. "You will not defy me!" He smacked me clean across the face, and my head snapped to the side. I was terrified. After another moment of silence, he reached in with tongs and pulled the chain out of the furnace. The entire thing was glowing with heat. "Grima!" he yelled. "Gloves!" Within seconds, the thin man had pulled a pair of thick gloves over his hands, and Saruman handed him the blazing hot chain. To my utter horror, the wizard got a sick smile of satisfaction on his face as his lackey started wrapping the chain around me, using it to tie me to the chair, just like the others.

He wrapped it right around my middle, arms and all, and I screamed again. To say that it hurt was an understatement. The thing was clamped into my flesh, searing the skin it touched instantly. I hadn't thought it could get worse after being branded, but it sure as hell did. Tears slid down my cheeks from the pain as the burning chain sat there, wrapped tightly around me, scarring my flesh and cutting right through my clothes forever. I still kept it together, though. Despite the horrible torture, I was somehow able to keep my mouth shut. They never got anything out of me other than screams of pain.

After five minutes of me sitting there with the chain on, Saruman finally gave up, He ordered Grima to remove the chain, and the servant did so, pulling it off of me. I cringed again. Even the slightest touch or movement against the burns made it feel like fresh fire had been set to them. "Get her out of here!" Saruman yelled harshly.

Next thing I knew, the regular chains fell to the floor as well, and I was yanked to my feet by Grima's gloved hand on my back. He clipped the shackles back onto my wrists, and I bit back another cry of pain as the old, dirty metal rubbed against the brand on my wrist. We quickly moved out of the room and went back up to the cell, where he took off the shackles, shoved me inside, and quickly pulled the door shut. I tripped and fell on the stone ground, hands first, stinging my wrist even more. I flipped over and scrambled backwards as the lock clicked shut. Grima cast me one last glace before disappearing back downstairs.

I slid back up against the wall, cringed in pain as the burned spots touched it, moved a few inches away, and waited until Saruman and Grima came back up a few minutes later, moving directly past me and continuing on up the stairs. As soon as they were out of earshot, I dropped my head and sobbed. _What the hell did I ever do to deserve this? _I looked down at the symbol of the White Hand on my wrist. Now I would be forever branded as a servant of Saruman, even though I wasn't one. It was cruel. I hated that wizard with a burning passion, and wanted to kill him so badly...but at the moment, all I wanted to do was rest. I couldn't even do that, though, because I couldn't lay down without having some burned area touch the stone. So I pulled my knees as close as I dared to my chest, rested my head on them, and cried until I fell asleep that way, curled up into a little ball.

oOo

Kathryn's POV

About two weeks after we celebrated Erin's birthday, I was walking through the hallways, carrying a basket of Éowyn's clothes that needed to be washed. I would've been content, had I not talked to Erin just a few minutes ago. I'd been introduced to Legolas some time ago, and Erin had just told me that she was upset. Apparently they'd argued about her telling him the future, and she'd told him to stop talking to her. He'd been avoiding her ever since. Erin was now apparently worried that she'd seriously hurt him, but she couldn't get a chance to talk to him and apologize. I sighed as I turned the corner. _If I ever run into that elf, I'm gonna smack some sense into him. _

Just as I stepped around the bend, I crashed into someone, sending clothes flying everywhere. I immediately dropped to the ground to pick them up, as did the person I'd run into. "Sorry," I said as I gathered up my stuff. "Wasn't paying attention. My bad."

"It is fine," said the person. I finally looked up at them and realized that I'd actually just crashed into Legolas.

"Oh, good! You're here!" I said, dropping the basket again and standing.

He looked at me, confused. "Yes...I am."

"Awesome. Now!" I gripped his shoulders and shook him like a madwoman. "Stop being dumb and go talk to her!"  
I let him go, and he looked at me like I was crazy. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Erin!" I said, and some strange emotion flickered in his eyes. "Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Stop avoiding her and go say you're sorry."

"I...I cannot," he said, and made to walk around me.

I stopped him. "Sure you can! Ust go up to her and say 'Erin, I'm sorry for being dumb.' That should do it."

He sighed and looked at me. "Kathryn, while I admire your heroics, I must ask that you stay out of it. This is between me and Erin."

I looked at him seriously. "Yeah, except Erin just came to me, all upset because you haven't spoken to her in two weeks and she wants to apologize."

He blinked. "She does?"

"Yes," I nodded, "she does. But you're the one who needs to apologize, not her." I poked him in the chest with a finger. Then, getting more serious, I continued. "Erin can't tell you anything because she doesn't know what will happen if she does. People could overhear, word could get out...and if word gets out that she knows the future..." I trailed off, not needing to finish.

It seemed like something finally clicked in Legolas' mind. "...She did not want to say anything, because she knew it would be foolishly putting herself in danger."

"And you, too," I said. "Think about it. If...oh, let's say Saruman, for example. If he found out that Erin knew valuable information, and he knew that you were close friends with her, don't you think it would be obvious that he should come after you and lock you away, exchanging your freedom for her info?"

"I...I had never thought about it that way," he said softly, looking down.

"Of course you didn't," I said. "That's why Erin can't say anything. Not just because she can't give away spoilers, but because it puts her and those she cares about in danger. She does care about you, Legolas. You know that."

He looked up at me. "I do know that."

"So go tell her you're sorry," I said. "She'll forgive you."

"...Are you sure?"

I smiled a bit. "Yes. I promise she will. And if she doesn't right away, then I'll go yell at her until she does."

He chuckled a bit at that. "All right, I will." He stepped away, stopped, then turned around. "Kathryn?"

"Yeah?" I lifted my basket off the ground again.

"Thank you."

I smiled at the blonde elf. "No problemo."

oOo

Erin's POV

I was leaning up against the windowsill in my bedroom, looking out at the bright morning sky. It was April twenty-eighth, and the weather was finally starting to warm up. I loved leaning out and feeling a fresh breeze on my face. I smiled as I watched a couple of kids playing some sort of game in an open area in the streets of Edoras, and laughed as one of them ran up and tossed grass in the other's hair.

Suddenly, the door to my room flew open with a bang, and I spun around to see Legolas standing in the doorway, looking very out of breath. "Erin!"

I frowned and ran over to him. "Legolas? What is it?" This was weird. He hadn't spoken to me for weeks. Was something wrong?

As soon as I reached him, he pulled me into a hug. I gasped, caught off-guard, but hugged him back. "I am so sorry," he said into my ear. "Forgive me. I was wrong to ask information of you as I did. I understand now...You say nothing, because it would put people in danger if you do. Including me."

I smiled to myself, letting out a breath of relief. "You finally figured it out."

"...With the help of Kathryn," he added, and I laughed.

"So she did do something about it. I talked to her earlier, and she said she'd try and find you."

He finally let me go, and looked at me questioningly. "Wait...am I forgiven?"

I grinned. "Of course you are. Thank you for apologizing."

He shook his head and smiled back. "I had no other choice. I honestly could not stand not talking to you for so long, but...I assumed you were still angry with me."

I shrugged. "I was...for a little while, at least. But after a few days, I realized that I'd overreacted by telling you to get lost. I won't ever do that again," I promised.

"Nor will I try and avoid you anymore," he replied.

"Awesome," I said.

"Oh!" He suddenly looked at me seriously. "Gandalf asked us to meet in the main hall. He says that King Théoden wishes to speak with us about important matters."

I instantly knew what he was talking about. "Got it. Let's go." As the two of us walked out of my room, I sighed mentally. _Guess we're leaving for Helm's Deep soon._

**A/N: So, Kaia finally read this story, and she wanted me to add this into my Author's Note: "If you think that I curse a lot, you've obviously never been on the internet. That's just the way I am, get over it. I love you all 3" **

**XD As blunt as it is, she's got a point. ANYWAY. Hope you guys liked this chapter! :3 I'll update again soon!**


	8. Moving On, Then

**A/N: Hello, my lovely readers! :D Hope you guys are doing well! This is gonna be a long Author's Note, because I just realized that I have a bunch of guest reviews that I want to reply to. So here we go! (You don't have to read all of them, just skip through and see if yours is in there.)**

**To LotR Geek on ch. 4: Kaia's definitely gonna go through some intense stuff. Haha, I do love writing cliffhangers! ;D Yay, more cookies! :3 *om nom nom***

**To HiddenElf-Bookworm on ch. 4: First off, thank you for adding me to your favorite authors and all the other stuff! ^^ It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when people do that. :D And woah, all three in one go? O_o That's awesome! *highfive* I'm glad you like the first one! I was a tiny bit stressed writing that one, because since I made up the plot and stuff all on my own, I was constantly checking over it to make sure it was still believable and made sense. And yes, I did go to Creation back at the end of June! :D It was so fun! Have you been there before? **

**To Starscream's Prime on ch. 6: Thanks! ^^ And yeah, one of Erin's biggest worries at the moment is that none of the stuff with the Ents is gonna happen. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...;)**

**And finally, to Kathryn (yes, the real-life Kathryn XD) on ch. 6 and 7: Well, you're awesome for reviewing this, even though you don't have a Fanfiction. MAKE ONE WOMANNNNNN D: Aww, well I'm glad I got your personality right. :D Did I really? XD I didn't even know that's how you and Rai were. FAIL...or is it a win for making you uncomfortable? ;3 Heehee...Hey, don't worry about Faramir. You'll see him again...maybe...or maybe not...XD Don't hate me. Let me have my fun. On ch. 7: Woo, you're a peacemaker! :D Well, you kind of have to come with us. XD Otherwise you'd be killed anyway. HAHAHA! I should totally write in a scene where, in some type of battle situation, you run away and hide behind Aragorn. XD XD XD That's great. Thanks for the idea, man. Lol.**

**And...that's it for today, you guys! :D (Wow, did I seriously take up half a page doing this? Sorry, guys. I'll try not to do that again. :C) Enjoy this chapter!**

Staying Strong: Chapter Eight

Erin's POV

Our little group were gathered in the main room of Meduseld. Legolas was standing up against a pillar, hands clasped in front of him, staring at the floor. I stood beside him, watching the two small children that sat at a table on the other side of the room, shoveling bowls of stew down their throats as Éowyn watched over them. Aragorn and Gimli sat at the table next to me, the latter also enjoying his meal. Aragorn was chewing thoughtfully on the end of his pipe, and Théoden sat in his wooden throne, head resting in the palm of his hand, looking stressed. Gandalf was on a small stool next to him, giving him advice and answers as they asked questions.

"I understand that your heart is heavy with many burdens," the white wizard said to the king, "but your lands are in danger of being completely overrun by Saruman. He is terrorizing your people; destroying their homes without mercy! And he will be here, at Edoras' doorstep, before long." I glanced up at him as he said that. _And what's Th__é__oden gonna do? He's gonna be an idiot and run away. _

In the back of my mind, I knew that they had more of a chance to survive at Helm's Deep than here, but I had never liked Théoden that much. Sure, I pitied the fact that he basically just woke up to the death of his son and all this chaos, but he always seemed too cocky and over-confident in himself. He always assumed that things were going to work out in his favor, and never prepared for the worst. After a few seconds of silence, Théoden sighed. "...How much damage has already been done?"

Now it was Éowyn who spoke up. "More than there should've been. Saruman has not only been using his Uruk-Hai to attack us, but he's gathered a small army of Wild Men to work for him as well. We received reports of them completely burning the village that these two came from-" here she gestured to the kids "-not five days ago." She rose from where she'd been seated next to the little girl. "They had no warning. They were unarmed! Now the Wild Men move through the Westfold, burning as they go. Rick, cot, and tree."

"Where is mama?" the little girl suddenly squeaked out, looking up at the king's niece worriedly. Éowyn shushed her, and my heart went out to the little girl...Freida, I think her name was.

"This is but a taste of the terror Saruman will unleash," Gandalf continued. "All the more potent, for he is now driven by fear of Sauron." He paused for a moment. "Ride out and meet him head on. Draw him away from your women and children." He placed a hand on the armrest of Théoden's throne. "You must fight!" he urged.

Aragorn spoke up from his seat. "You have two thousand good men riding north as we speak. Éomer is loyal to you. His men will return and fight for their king."

"They would be three hundred leagues from here by now!" the king cried, rising from his seat and anxiously taking several steps forward. "Éomer cannot help us," he said, with a hint of remorse in his voice. Gandalf made to go up to him, but Théoden cut him off. "I know what it is you want of me, but I will not risk further death to my people. I will not risk open war."

"Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not."

All eyes turned to Aragorn, the brave soul who's retorted. Éowyn shot him a dangerous look, but I clapped a hand on his shoulder supportingly. "You tell him, Aragorn."

Théoden glanced at me darkly, but most of his glare was reserved for the ranger. "When last I looked..._Th__é__oden_, not Aragorn was King of Rohan," he sneered. I wanted to snap back at him, but kept my mouth shut. Gimli let out a burp that did not go unheard in the tense silence of the room.

"Then what is the king's decision?" Gandalf intervened.

Théoden was silent for a long while. Even though I knew it was coming, it pissed me off when he looked up and said "Prepare to leave. The entire city is to be emptied. In two days, we leave for Helm's Deep."

As soon as he finished, I slammed my fist down on the table, causing Aragorn and Legolas to jump. "No!" I shouted. The King turned to me, as did the others, and I walked right up to him. _King or not, you're still an idiot. _"Why are you doing this? You can't outrun war, it's not possible! If you run from here, Saruman will just follow you wherever you go. Stop being a coward and fight him!"

At that last remark, a series of collective gasps arose around the room. Théoden looked just as mad as me, but still managed to remain a bit calmer than I. "Perhaps you have not fully considered the extent of my plan, Lady Erin. Saruman knows that this is our capital city, and that is has the largest population. Therefore, he would choose to attack here, if he is as wise as he claims. Imagine the shock on his face when his armies arrive here, only to find it empty!"

"At least gather your armies and prepare for battle once we arrive at Helm's Deep," I pleaded.

He shook his head. "We do not need it. It would take them at least another week to make it to the Deep from Edoras, so we have time. And even if they were to attack us, they would not be able to storm the Hornburg. No army ever has."

"That's because no army has ever been as strong as the Uruk-Hai," I shot back. "You've never fought against them before. You can't predict what they're capable of."

"And you can?"

I clenched my jaw. _You suck, Théoden. You really, really suck. _The king smiled the tiniest bit at my silence, which only infuriated me more. I stepped closer to him. "Just you wait," I hissed. "There will come a day when you're stuck in a battle that you're completely unprepared for because you were to cocky and proud to admit that you're not perfect." Without waiting for a response, I spun quickly on my heel and walked away, still fuming as I exited the room, feeling several pairs of eyes on my back.

oOo

Kathryn's POV

I had just finished the rest of my chores for the morning, and figured I'd go see if Erin wanted to hang out. The first place I checked was her room, and I opened the door to see a very pissed off friend of mine, shoving clothes into a leather bag. "Stupid Théoden...making stupid decisions...and just being...stupid..." she mumbled, a frown pulled over her face as she tossed the bag on her bed and walked across the room to where she kept her weapons.

I stepped inside. "Erin? What's got you so ticked off?"

She briefly glanced up at me, then went back to angrily packing her stuff. "Your king decided to be an idiot. We're leaving for Helm's Deep in two days."

I blinked. "And...why, exactly, is that bad?"

"You don't remember the huge fight at the end of the second movie?" she asked.

_Oh, yeah! Damn memory loss. _"Oh! That one! Wait, the one we were talking about the other day?"

Erin nodded. "Yeah, that one."

"But...isn't that supposed to happen?"

"Yes, but..." She sighed. "I just don't like Théoden at all. I was hoping that maybe I could somehow convince him to prepare for Saruman's surprise attack ahead of time, but he won't listen. He's too arrogant, and thinks that nothing can possibly go wrong. That's just about the worst thing you can do in a war like this. Never underestimate your enemy."

I still didn't quite get it, but whatever. "Oh. So...you're leaving soon, then?"

"Yeah. You should probably get ready, too."

"Wait...I have to go with you?"

Erin looked at me oddly. "Yes, Kathryn. He wants the entire city of Edoras to be emptied."

"Oh..." _Crap. But...I don't want to be in a huge battle with evil things trying to cut my head off! What if I die? What if Erin dies? _

"Hey, don't worry about it," my friend said. "If worst comes to worst...I'll do the fighting, and you can just run away like the chicken you are," she teased.

I laughed a bit nervously, but she didn't catch it. "Yeah...totally.

oOo

Kaia's POV

I woke up one morning (or was it afternoon? I couldn't tell) with a pounding headache, a sore back from sleeping in the uncomfortable ground for so many days, and my muscles cramping from being forced to live in this tiny, awkward space for so long. I assumed it would be a normal day, you know...wake up, be alone for awhile, torture, be alone, more torture, if Saruman was in a particularly nasty mood, then my one meal that I got every day, and then sweet slumber for the next ten hours or so. However, this morning was different than the others. Not long after I woke up, the old wizard came marching down the stairs with Grima in tow, cuffed me and brought me out of my cell, just as I'd expected, but this time I was led upstairs to his main throne room instead of to a different torture chamber.

As the doors clanged shut, Grima and I stood off to the side, while Saruman anxiously paced back and forth on the other side of his covered pedestal. He was silent for awhile, then looked at Grima. "What are your reports from Edoras that you have otherwise failed to tell me?" he hissed.

"My apologies, Master," Grima said. "Though I was delayed longer than usual, I bring very interesting news from Rohan. I was...confronted, you could say, by a very strange group of strangers that arrived in Edoras not long ago. A dwarf, there was, an elf also...likely of Mirkwood origin." _Legolas? _I thought, though I made no sign of recognition. "A man...a woman...and one whom I thought to be naught but an old foe, long lost."

_Oh my God..._I realized. _Erin and the others...they're in Rohan! That's not far from here, is it? _I was thinking about this, not paying attention to whatever else Grima was saying to the wizard, until Saruman demanded my attention. "Kaia!" My head snapped up. "Tell me, child...do you know of Gandalf Greyhame?"

Hurt stabbed at my heart as I remembered his fall in Moria. "He..." I hesitated, not sure how much to tell him. "Yes, I knew him before he died."

To my surprise, Saruman raised an eyebrow, as if amused. "Gandalf died, did he? Then you must not have known him well, for Grima has just informed me that not only is he alive, he has...more power than before." He seemed irritated at that last bit of news.

"What?" I asked incredulously. "Gandalf...is alive?"

"Yes," Saruman sneered. "No longer is he Gandalf the Grey...he's a white wizard now." He started pacing again. "Gandalf the White..." he said, clearly displeased. "Gandalf the fool!" He sounded angry, but the way he was wringing his hands together told me otherwise. "Does he seek to humble me with his newfound piety?"

"There were others that followed the wizard," Grima repeated, walking over to his master. "An elf, a dwarf, a woman, and a man."

Saruman sniffed the air, disgusted. "You stink of horse," he commented. If I hadn't hated him so much, I would've laughed. Grima started to walk away, but Saruman stopped him. "The man..." he said, turning around. "Was he from Gondor?"

"No, from the north. One of the Dunedain, I thought he was." Grima chewed on his nails. I vaguely remembered Erin having that habit in the past. "His cloth was poor. And yet...he bore a strange ring." Saruman listened intently. "Two serpents, with emerald eyes. One devouring, the other crowned with golden flowers."

Saruman nodded, then quickly moved into a room branching off of this one. Grima and I stayed put, and though I couldn't see him, I knew he was flipping through a book from the sound of fluttering pages. "The Ring of Barahir," he said after awhile. "So Gandalf Greyhame thinks he has found Isildur's heir...the lost king of Gondor. He is a fool. The line was broken years ago." He closed the book. "It matters not. The world of men shall fall. It will begin at Edoras."

_Edoras...shit! That's where Erin and the others are! _I silently cursed. _Dear God, please let them be okay..._

I looked up and noticed that Saruman had come back into the same room as Grima and I again. He stared at me for a long while, then finally, something clicked in his mind. I could see it in his eyes. "You were a member of the Walkers..." he said. I looked at him blankly. "The Fellowship," he said, exasperated.

I nodded. "I thought that much was obvious."

His eyes flashed with anger, but he overlooked my sass. "And you are familiar with these...characters that have invaded Edoras, yes?"

I didn't answer. I knew what he was getting at now.

He walked up to me. "...There are two of you?" Again, I didn't respond, and he swore, striking me. I stumbled backwards a few steps, and he turned to Grima. "Her name. What was the name of the other girl that was with Gandalf?" He sounded urgent.

Grima closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. _Oh God...no. Please, no..._ "Her name I never learned...but I do remember her appearance. She was about the same height as this one, though her skin is fair. Her hair is brown and long, and her eyes are green. She did not wear the typical attire of a woman, rather she came dressed in traveling clothes. She wore a silver necklace, bearing the symbol of the Galadhrim on its chain." He opened his eyes. "She must be in league with the elves somehow."

"And therefore is close with the elf in their party," Saruman confirmed. He cast a positively evil smirk at me, then turned to Grima. "It appears that the girl who has all of the knowledge we need is not with us. Send out a small party of Uruk-Hai to Edoras immediately. Now that Théoden has been healed, time is running short." He started walking back to his little office off to the side, stopping to smirk at me one last time. "Tell them to tear the city apart until the girl has been found, and bring her here. The elf, too. He could also be useful, given the situation."

"No!" I cried out, not caring if he knew Erin was my friend anymore.

"Oh yes," Saruman said, his grin slowly widening. "We will find her. Do not be so burdened, Kaia...at least now you shall not be alone in your torture." With that he disappeared. "Take her away!" he commanded before slamming his doors shut.

Grima quickly obeyed, grabbing my shoulder and pulling me back down into my cell. Once the door clicked shut and he left, I swore and punched the bars out of anger. Not the smartest thing to do, as my hand hurt like a bitch afterwards, but I was just so...ticked. _Damn it! Now Erin and Legolas are being hunted! I've gotta help them somehow. I can't just sit back and let this happen. _I stared down at the floor for a minute, then looked up at my sword hanging on the wall, determination stirring in my heart. _I'm gonna break out of here._

oOo

Erin's POV

"Okay," I said, stepping back into my beginning position. "One last time." I held my sword in my hand and started slowly going through the moves with Kathryn. "Step, step, block...okay, now side, step, lunge...no, you're not holding it right. There you go. Now, left foot in front. No, your _other _left foot."

Kathryn groaned in exasperation and dropped her sword. "It's no use, Erin. I'm terrible at this, and we both know it." We'd been practicing outside of Edoras' gates, out in the open field where I could train her privately.

I smiled. "Oh, come on. You're not doing that bad."

"We've been out here for three hours, and I still can't even keep up with you when you're moving this slow." She sank to the ground, sighing. "...I just...I don't think I'm cut out for fighting."

I sheathed my sword. "Hey, don't beat yourself up about it. You won't become a superstar overnight, you know. I certainly didn't."

"Yeah, but I don't have a lot of time to learn. You said the big battle-thingy is happening soon, right?"

I shrugged. "Well, I dunno. Depends when we get to Helm's Deep. Could be a few days...could be a few weeks."

"And I'm not gonna be able to learn how to fight in a few days," she sulked. "I suck."

I laughed. "Hey, it could be worse. We could all be dead."

She rolled her eyes. "You say that for everything."

"Well, it's true, isn't it?" We laughed.

"Very," she said, smiling again.

Suddenly, both of our heads snapped up as we heard the faint ringing of a bell coming from Edoras. "Oh, frick," I said. "We've gotta go. That bell means that we're leaving, I think."

Kathryn's eye widened. "Really? Oh God...let's go!" She quickly picked up the sword that Éowyn had let her keep for herself and slid it into its sheath, and together we took off, running at full speed back to Meduseld in order to take care of last-minute preparations to leave Edoras behind and get on the road.

When we arrived back in town, it was pretty chaotic. People were hustling and bustling everywhere, grabbing various items like food, clothes, weapons...etc. from wherever they could reach it. Everyone was in a last-minute frenzy to find the stuff that they needed. As Kathryn and I wove through the crowds, with me in the lead, we could hear Hama shouting last-minute orders to the people. "Do not burden yourselves with treasures! Take only what provisions you need!"

We quickly made it back to Meduseld, pausing just in front of the main doors. I caught my breath, then looked at my best friend. "You grab your stuff, I'll grab mine. We'll meet back here when we're ready to go, okay?" She nodded, and we both went our separate ways from there. I quickly ran back to my room, going through my bag one last time to make sure I had everything I wanted. Spare clothes...check. Hairbrush...check. Bandages and other medical stuff...Aragorn had that. Food...check. Flask filled with water...check. I closed it and then checked myself to make sure I had all my weapons. I was already dressed in my normal traveling clothes (I'd gotten Kathryn to give my shirt to a seamstress so I could get all of my shirt's tears and holes fixed up), and as I checked myself over, I smiled. I had my bow and quiver from Lórien on my back, my two knives which normally hung from my sides were also now in my bag, my sword from Galadriel, and Kaia's twin black blades on my hips. I grabbed my bag of stuff and stepped out of my room, ready to go.

As I pushed the main doors open, I smiled to see Kathryn already changed and standing in front of me. "Dang! You're fast!" For her traveling clothes, she'd picked out an outfit that consisted of a long-sleeved, off-white undershirt, a short brown tunic with a scoop neckline and short sleeves, gold trim lining all the edges, a thick ten waistband with a layer of white fur for warmth, matching tan armguards, a short brown skirt with gold detailing that seemed like a part of the tunic itself, tan leggings, and brown boots, also with white fur trim around the tops. She had her sword at her side, along with another curved knife, but that was it as far as weapons went. Her short hair hung freely around her face.

Kathryn smiled. "No, you're just slow. Where are we going now?"

I paused, trying to think about where the others from the Fellowship would be. "Uhh...the stables, I think. Unless we're too late."

"Too late for what?" Kathryn asked, but I ignored her, already headed down to where their horses were kept. We entered the massive building just in time to see Legolas pulling Arod out of his stall, and Aragorn doing the same with his new horse, Brego. Gandalf had already left to go look for Éomer the other day, so he wasn't there. I walked up to Frania, smiling as I rubbed her nose. "Hey Erin?" I looked back at Kathryn. "I don't have a horse."

As if on cue, there came a whinny from the stall next to her, and I smiled to see Hasufel, Aragorn's old horse, looking at Kathryn curiously. "I think he likes you. Why don't you take Hasufel?"

Kathryn looked at him for a moment, then gently laid a hand on his neck. "But...isn't he someone else's?"

"He was mine," Aragorn said, jumping into the conversation, "but I am to ride Brego now. You may have him."

Kathryn smiled, and then let Hasufel out. "Awesome! Hey boy...how's it going?" She swung up into the saddle that was already on him, almost falling right back out in the process, had she not steadied herself on the wall.

I laughed. "All this time you've been in Edoras, and you can't even get on a horse?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut it. I'm only a servant girl, you can't expect these things from me." We laughed, and she got Hasufel to trot over to me, where I already was comfortable on top of Frania. "You ready?"

"I'm ready when they are," I said, looking over to Gimli, who as also struggling to mount his steed. Legolas helped him up, and pretty soon our whole little group was ready to go. A soldier came by and gave the order to clear out, and pretty soon we all filed out of the stable, making our way up to the head of the crowd of people. I rode between Kathryn, Legolas, and Gimli, and we all rode just behind the king as we made our way out of Rohan's capital city. I paused and cast one last glance over my shoulder at the city once we were pretty far out, seeing it as no more than a small blob of brown amidst the grassy plains. Turning back around in my saddle, I nudged Frania into action again, falling back in line with my other friends as we headed off to our next location.


	9. Love Hurts

**A/N: Before I start this chapter, I want to give a HUGE shout-out to the amazing The Namless Wonder, who asked me to be the beta for her very own LotR fanfic! :D I've already proofread the first three chapters, and they're AWESOME! :D So go check her out and keep your eyes peeled for her new story when you get the chance! And now...on with the fic!**

Staying Strong: Chapter Nine

Kaia's POV

I spent the next few days in Orthanc plotting my escape. I examined every inch of that damn cell, looking for a crack in the wall, a weak point in the bars...anything. Day and night, I searched. Every precious second of time that I had alone (except for meals, of course,) was spent scanning the cramped area for any area that I might be able to break through and escape out of. But no matter how hard I tried, I kept coming up with nothing. The walls seemed impenetrable; the iron cell door unbreakable. It seemed like nothing was working in my favor at all. And of course, with every minute that I spent still trapped in Saruman's tower, the fear for my friends' lives grew even bigger. I was so terrified that one day an Uruk would walk down here and throw Erin, Legolas, or maybe even Aragorn into one of the other empty cells around me.

_Aragorn. _I missed him so badly. He was like an older brother to me. I felt like I could tell him anything. I desperately hoped that he was safe. For all the reckless stuff he did, he seemed to always have luck on his side to keep him alive. _If I get out of here and find out that he's dead...God...I'll never be able to forgive myself. _Then, of course, there was this little mission that Galadriel had given me a few months back that I had to complete, too. How was I supposed to do what she needed me to do from in here? What if the events I saw in her mirror happened while I was being held prisoner and couldn't do anything about it? _Dude, I seriously __**need **__to get out of here._

Four days had passed since Saruman had found out about Erin, and thankfully, I'd heard no reports of her being captured or found. On the afternoon of that fourth day, however, I learned some very interesting news while picking at the rusty old lock that held the iron bars shut. My muscles tensed when I recognized the voices of Grima and Saruman from above, and I scrambled backwards, not wanting them to know I was plotting when they came down the steps.

But they never came. I stared at the stone stairwell for several seconds before realizing that there were no footsteps headed my way. In fact, it sounded like they were in the room right above me, having a conversation about something. _They must've left the door open a crack and not noticed. _I crawled back over to the bars and pressed my face against them, listening to their faint voices as best as I could.

"...should've guessed this might happen," I heard Saruman hiss. "So...Edoras is completely empty. Théoden...that bastard is smarter than I gave him credit for." _What? Wait, then where's Erin and the others?_

"He would not have stayed at Edoras," Grima replied. "It's vulnerable; he knows this."

"And yet you failed to think of this sooner," the wizard bitterly interrupted.

Grima continued. "...They will flee to Helm's Deep," he said suddenly. "It will be a slow, rough journey through the mountains. They will have women...and _children _with them. The girl would obviously be with them."

"Helm's Deep..." Saruman muttered. "Of all the condemned places of this earth to flee too, he chooses there." _Where the hell is that? _I wondered. There was a brief silence before the wizard continued. "We do not have much time left. Much has been wasted already." There was the sound of movement upstairs. "We must try and take her from them while they are so vulnerable. I will send the Wargs after them immediately. You are to stay here until I return. Understood?" My hopes rose slightly. _Saruman's leaving the building. Oh my God...this is my chance. _"And next time..." he said, "try not to be such an idiot and waste my time." There was the bang of a closing door, and I heard Grima quietly sigh. I felt kind of bad for him. He seemed like he was verbally abused by his master a lot.

But whatever. I didn't have time to pity him. I waited until I heard another door shut, then focused all my attention on the lock again. It was old...really old...and looked easy to pick. I felt myself for something that I could use. If there was one thing I was good at, it was picking locks. I finally remembered the leaf pin that held my cloak from Lothlórien together. Quickly unfastening it, I shivered as the layer of fabric fell from my shoulders and onto the dirty floor. I kept the pin open and carefully stuck the sharp tip of it into the keyhole, carefully feeling around and trying to get it caught on something. After about half a minute, I finally twisted it, holding my breath.

I nearly screamed with joy when the lock popped open with a _click. _For a second, I froze there, hunched in the doorway of the cell, thinking there was a catch and I hadn't seriously set myself free. But I had. I really had. And it was the greatest damn feeling in the world, lemme tell ya. I could've skipped right out of that tower without a care in the world.

But that wasn't the smartest plan. I knew that Saruman was still in the area, if not in the tower, and Grima was still messing around somewhere up there. And let's not forget the hundreds of Uruk-Hai parading around outside, ready to kill me in an instant if they saw me set foot outside. No...I wasn't ready to escape quite yet. That would be for later. Right now...all I needed was a weapon. Thank the Lord that they'd been stupid enough to keep a couple of them sitting on the table, which was now right in front of me. Not only was my personal sword there, but there was also a few knives (probably from past prisoners that had been held here) piled up on the table below the rack on the wall.

Silently, I pulled the door open, cringing as it let out a small creaking noise. For a moment, I stood stone still, begging God that Grima hadn't heard me. After a few seconds of stillness, I exhaled, relieved, and stood up, now completely outside my cell. I was so, _so _tempted to just bolt right out of there. But I couldn't. Not yet. So all I did was sneak over to the table, pick out a knife that had about a six-inch blade and a simple brown handle, grab it, and then quickly scurry back into my cell, making sure to carefully re-lock the door behind me after making sure nothing looked too out-of-place. Once I was back inside my cell, I straightened out the pin that had gotten a bit bent up from picking the lock, clipped my cloak back on, and stuck my dagger in my boot, which was just barely tall enough to hide it in. Once my task was done, I felt ten times safer and more secure than I ever had before, enough to scoot back into the shadows of my cell, lie down on the floor, and drift into a deep sleep.

oOo

Kathryn's POV

We'd been on the move for about a week. It was early May, and the weather was bright and sunny, putting everyone in a good mood as we traveled across the rolling hills of Rohan, steadily getting closer and closer to Helm's Deep. While I'd heard much about it from talking with Éowyn and Théodred during my earlier months living in Rohan, I'd never actually been to this place, so I for one was frikin' excited to see it.

Even Erin seemed in a better mood than normal, cracking jokes and smiling more than she'd been when I'd first met her in Edoras. "Dude," she said to me as we walked side by side, "do you remember when we were in choir that one time, and I was trying to get to the back of the room, so I started stepping over the rows of chairs?"

I grinned at the Earth memory. "Oh my gosh...and then you tried to jump over the last row, but failed epically and tripped on it, making you fall right on top or Katie!" We both burst out laughing.

"That really was an epic fail," she said. "I remember almost knocking the chair completely over!"

"You're so graceful, Erin," I said sarcastically.

She scoffed. "Oh, please. At least I didn't try and do _terrible _attempts at parkour off of a rolled-up wrestling mat in gym class."

"Hey! Shut up!" I yelled at her, smacking her on the arm. "That was one time!"

She laughed. "No, that was like...every day we had gym."

I was so glad that no one was paying attention to us so that we could talk about our old lives openly. "Oh God...and listening to Skillet in art class while we skipped grad band..."

"Good times, good times," Erin agreed. We both fell silent for a moment, until Erin finally looked at me. "Oh yeah! That reminds me...I've wanted to tell you this since I first saw you here."

I frowned. "What?"

She grinned evilly. "The Game."

"DAMN YOU ERIN!" I yelled, drawing several weird looks from the crowds of people around us. I pounced at her, trying to smack her again, but she just ducked and ran away, laughing. I followed her, weaving through the crowds, until she finally stopped running and ducked behind Legolas, who looked totally lost. "Don't bring him into this, you wimp!"

Erin was still laughing. "I never said he had to do anything. He's just my bodyguard."

"I am your what?" Legolas asked. Now I was laughing, too. The look in his face was absolutely priceless.

"Never mind," Erin said, shaking her head, though she was still hiding behind him.

I rolled my eyes. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today," I said, smiling still before turning and walking away.

oOo

Legolas' POV

Once Kathryn had finally walked off, Erin let go of where she'd been clinging to my cloak and came out from behind me. I looked at her, eyebrows raised. "What in the name of the Valar did you do this time?"

"I said 'The Game.'" She looked over at me and grinned.

I clenched my fists as I realized I had just been a victim, too. "Whoever invented that infernal game is an idiot," I muttered. I heard her laughing, and smiled when I saw her smiling, too.

"Really? I think they're a genius."

"You would," I said. "I would not be surprised if you actually invented that yourself."

"Hey now," she said, raising her hands in surrender. "I can't take credit for that, no matter how much I want to." I smiled again. "Nor can I take credit for anything else that awesome...like bacon."

I laughed. "Where in the world did that come from? And what is 'bacon?'"

She turned and gaped at me like I'd just told her I was a long-lost brother of hers. "No. Way. You're serious? I've never told you about bacon?" I nodded. "Oh my gosh..." She smacked a hand to her face. "I'm so stupid. I don't deserve to live anymore."

I shook my head, still not understanding. "What is this 'bacon' that you keep going on about?"

She thought for a moment. "It's like...the salted pork that you have here," she explained.

I thought about that. "Oh...Well, it is quite delicious."

"See? I told you!" she exclaimed, and we both laughed a bit.

I looked over at Erin again as we walked along. Her hair was loose from when she had tied it back, and she was just as dirty as the rest of us, but she still looked beautiful. And she seemed...happier, too. "What has you smiling so much as of late?" I asked, curious.

"What do you mean?" she said in return.

"Well...you just seem more like your old self," I said. "Like you're expecting something good to happen soon." She had a knowing glint in her eye, but just smiled and shook her head. "Ah, I see. You are keeping secrets from me again," I said, faking a hurt expression. "Well, if you do not wish to tell me anything, then..." I trailed off, speeding up my pace and moving away from her.

A few seconds later, I heard her call for me. "Legolas! Where are you going?" I stopped and turned around, still looking offended, but trying not to laugh as I saw her worried face. "You're serious?" she asked.

I grinned again. "What do you think?"

Her jaw dropped. "You suck!" she said, running to catch up with me. Before I knew it, she tackled me, and surprisingly was actually able to knock me down. I fell flat on my back, and since we were on a slight hill, the two of us unintentionally ended up rolling out of line a bit. In the end, Erin was the one lying on the ground, and I pulled myself free of her hands that kept trying to playfully smack me.

After a moment, I crawled over to her so that I was looking at her upside-down. "Are you done now?"

She didn't answer, instead reaching up with her hands and grabbing the hair that had fallen over my shoulders, pushing it away. "You should get your hair cut," she said casually.

I laughed. "I do not think that is necessary, Erin."

"Of course it is! It's a brilliant idea! After all, I thought of it," she said with a wink as she got back to her feet. "Or do you just not like my ideas anymore, _Thranduilion?_" she said. (Son of Thranduil)

I pretended to think about it. "Well, considering that most of your ideas are usually putting one of us in danger..."

She gasped in fake shock, then pouted and turned away quickly. "...You're mean."

"Am I, now?" I said, still smiling a bit. "I thought that, according to you, companions that are so close with each other are supposed to make fun of each other more."

At that remark, she turned around and grinned. "Exactly. And that's why _you_-" Here she poked me in the ribs with her finger "- are my bestest friend in the whole wide world. Well, besides Kaia and Kathryn, anyway." Suddenly, she glanced up at the line of Rohirrim, who were still moving steadily along. "Oh, crap. We left our horses," she laughed, then turned and started walking back to the spot we had been at. "Come on!" she cried over her shoulder.

My smile faded as I started after her. "Right...best friends." I sighed, speaking quietly to myself. "If only we could get beyond that."

oOo

Kathryn's POV

After leaving Erin and Legolas by themselves, I made my way back to where she and I had originally been walking, which was closer to Éowyn. When I got back over there, I found that she was now holding onto the reins of both Hasufel and Frania, and was currently listening to Gimli ramble on about dwarf women from on top of Arod, with Aragorn close by. Right as I walked up, though, Arod suddenly freaked out and broke into a run, sending a very unprepared Gimli toppling off of the side of him a few feet ahead of us. Éowyn gasped, trying to cover up her laughter as she ran to help him. I stayed back with Aragorn, making no attempt to cover mine. "Oh God, Gimli...fail. Just...just fail."

"It's alright, it's alright, nobody panic!" the dwarf cried as he struggled to get back up. "It was deliberate, it was deliberate." I grinned as Éowyn helped him up, then looked back to us, laughing as she swatted his short little braid that stuck out from underneath his helmet.

"He never was good with horses," Aragorn chuckled.

"Obviously," I replied. After a moment, I went up to the lady of Rohan just as Gimli went back to talk to Aragorn some more. "Hey, Éowyn."

"Hello, Kathryn," she said, smiling. "Are you well?"  
I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm regretting wearing layers of clothing, though." I fanned myself with my hand, and she laughed a bit.

There was short silence before she asked another question, this one more serious. "Have you heard from Faramir at all?" She was the only one that I'd told about my crush on him before Erin came along.

I sighed. "No...nothing. I'm starting to worry, Éowyn. What if he doesn't like me anymore? What if he's found someone else?"

"Oh, Kathryn," she said sadly. "You really do worry too much." I looked over at her, and she smiled reassuringly. "I have seen Faramir look at many a maiden, but never in the same way he loos at you."

"Thanks," I said dryly. "Now if only I could get him to stop beating around the bush and just say something sweet like that to me."

"Your time will come," she replied, "I know it. One day you will see him again, and when you do, he will be so overjoyed at seeing your smiling face again that he will have no other choice than to proclaim his love for you."

I smiled a bit at the thought of that. "I hope so."

"As do I," she said. "I think you two are perfect for each other."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, now you're just saying that."

My friend laughed a bit. "No, I'm serious!" The expression on her face changed all of a sudden, and it seemed like a...longing...kind of look. "...One day you will finally have the man of your dreams to call your own."

I looked at her sympathetically, knowing exactly who she was thinking about. "Éowyn..."

She shook her head before I could say anything else. "No, no, it is fine." She sighed. "...I'm sorry. I was being selfish, and thinking of my own desires."

"It's not a bad thing when you're going through the same stuff, too," I said quietly. "Just don't give up on him yet, okay? He'll come around." When Éowyn wasn't looking, I peeked over my shoulder and glanced at the ranger who'd stolen my best friend's heart. He was laughing at something Gimli had said. I turned back to Éowyn, who was somberly staring at the ground. _At least...I sure hope so._

oOo

Erin's POV

I sat at the edge of the firelight that several of the Rohirrim were huddled around, wrapped tightly in blankets to avoid the nagging chill of the cold spring night. Many of our portion of the big traveling party had already fallen asleep, but there were still a few who were awake and chatting quietly. I had chosen to sit alone, the shadow of the night licking my knees as I sat cross-legged, deep in thought while I stroked the Galadhrim symbol on my necklace subconsciously.

It was at this time that someone decided to come over and sit with me, and it didn't take a genius to figure out who it was. "Hey, Legolas."

"Hello, Erin," the elf said politely. "Why are you out here alone?"

I instantly tried to put back on the mask of happiness that I'd been wearing all day long. I hadn't realized until now how much my paranoia of the future was affecting my friends, so I'd tried my best to keep my spirits up, just for them. But it was times like these, when I was completely alone, that I let my guard down. I hated how things were going right now. My only comfort was that I knew I'd been seeing Haldir again soon. It made me a bit happier, but not enough to distract me from everything else. "Oh, you know," I said, trying not to look depressed and smiling a bit. "Just...enjoying the weather."

"You look troubled."

I sighed and stopped trying to act happy. _He can read me so well._ "Well...yeah. I guess I am."

"Kaia?"

"Yep." I ran a hand through my hair. "I mean...I know I probably shouldn't be worried about her, but I am. I just...I'm bothered by the fact that I can't control what's going on anymore. That sounds dumb, I know, but it bugs me." I switched topics. "And that's not even the worst of it, either." I hesitated for a moment, knowing that I would sound really hypocritical if I told Legolas what I was thinking. "...I know that...someone...is going to die in the very near future. And I want to save their life so badly...but...I'm afraid it'll throw everything even more off-balance if I do." I glanced over at Legolas and let go of my necklace, thinking that it would be a dead giveaway. He wasn't looking at me, but rather staring down into his own lap. I tried not to get all upset as Haldir's death played itself in my mind. That horrible instant where the Uruk axed him straight down the back...I shivered, but not because I was cold. "I have no clue what to do anymore," I said softly. "I don't want to risk putting Middle-Earth in danger, but I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I let that person die right in front of me." I glanced over at Legolas again. "I'm sorry. I'm being dumb and wasting your time."

Legolas patiently listened to me rant before he spoke. "You are not dumb. You are the smartest woman I have ever met."

"Thanks," I said, "but I'm still worried."

"Well, if you would like my opinion..." Here he turned sideways to face me, and looked into my eyes sincerely. "I do not think you need to worry so much about the future. It is something to keep in mind, yes, but not to obsess over. Just focus on what is going on right now. Everything will eventually fall into place as it is meant to be."

I gave him a small smile and leaned over, hugging him tightly. "You're the best, you know that?"

"I try," he replied, and I laughed quietly as we let go. We sat there for awhile in silence, and eventually I noticed that he was staring at me from the side.

I turned to him. "What?"

He smiled a bit, but quickly looked away. "Nothing," he said. "It is nothing."


	10. Of Ruined Soup, Giant Marbles, & Puppies

Staying Strong: Chapter Ten

Kathryn's POV

I sat next to Erin as we ate our lunch for the afternoon during our quick break from walking. It had been a little over three weeks that we'd been traveling to Helm's Deep from Edoras, and I was more than ready to reach this big huge 'impenetrable fortress' that everyone was so excited to reach. My feet ached from walking so much, and while it was nice to have Hasufel to sit on if I wanted to, it was just so tiring to be constantly on the move all the time. This was another reason why I treasured moments like this one, where we stopped walking to eat our meals or sleep for the night.

Erin took a bite of what had been prepared for her, which was a small plate of salted pork, some kind of green vegetable, carrots, and a weird, lumpy potato-based dish that someone had made and given to her. Grinning, she turned to me and said "Well, the pork's good."

I smiled. "Did you expect it to be bad?"

She shook her head. "No...I just hoped it was better than this." She pointed to the potato stuff. Actually, the closer I looked at it, the more I realized it wasn't really based on potatoes...it was just a mishmash of random foods mixed together in what looked like mashed potatoes. "Here, you try it." She scooped a clump of it off of her plate and stuck it on mine.

I put it in my mouth for about three seconds, and then quickly spit it back out. "Oh, God! Where did you get that?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I was just kinda walking through a line of people serving food, and this somehow ended up on my plate." She finished her pork and started working on her vegetables. I dipped my spoon into the bowl of soup that Éowyn had given me and drank it. It was pretty good...had some nice flavor to it. The kettle of soup itself was currently steaming and sitting right in front of me.

Suddenly, I heard a plop, and the next thing I knew there was a splash of broth on my face. I glared at Erin, who was laughing to herself. "Really? You seriously flicked it into my bowl?"

"Sorry," she said. "Couldn't resist."

I frowned and broke a small chunk of bread off of the corner of the piece I'd been given, tossing it at her and hitting her in the shoulder. She shook her head and laughed at me. "Dude, if that would've gone down my shirt, I would've killed you."

I laughed and fished the wad of potatoey-mush out of my bowl, setting it back on Erin's plate. Now it was all wet and dripping broth everywhere.

She cringed. "Ew! No, I don't want it! Put it with the rest of your soup!" Before I could say anything, she dumped it, along with the rest of the odd dish and a few veggie scraps, into the kettle at my feet.

My eyes widened. "Uhh...Erin? That's not my soup." I watched her leftovers disappear into the stew.

"What?" She looked over at me, a bit freaked out. "Wait...then whose is it?"

I was just about to answer, when the owner of the soup came over to us, smiling. "Hello, girls," Éowyn said, picking up the kettle.

"Where are you going with that?" I asked.

"I'm going to see if any of the men would like some," she said, turning and walking off. I looked over at Erin, whose expression said 'FML,' and burst out laughing.

"Dude...you just ruined Éowyn's soup! You're horrible!"

"I didn't know it was hers!" she defended, looking back at me. "I thought it was yours! I don't care if I mess up your food!"

I rolled my eyes. "Wow, thanks. Friendship is magic."

I laughed, but Erin wasn't paying attention. She was looking off in the direction that Éowyn had gone. "Oh no..." I followed her gaze, laughing even more as I saw her approach Aragorn and offer him some stew. He took it gratefully, and the two of us watched as the unsuspecting ranger took a bite of it. Even from here, I could see that he'd scooped up a chunk of the potato crap with the soup. He froze as soon as the spoon was in his mouth, and I laughed again as Erin covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry, Aragorn," she mumbled, but when she pulled her hands away, I could see her smiling a bit, too.

It got even better. When Éowyn turned to leave him, he tried to dump the rest of it out onto the ground, but just as it started to spill, she looked back at him, and he nearly dropped the entire thing as he tried to save himself, spilling some of it on himself in the process. I wiped a tear away as he awkwardly sat there, forced to choke the rest of it down as the lady of Rohan watched him. "Oh my gosh...that's so terrible!"

"I feel like such a jerk," Erin said, though she was laughing anyway. "Poor Aragorn. I so owe him one now."

I finished off the rest of my soup, smiling as Éowyn came back to us a bit later. "Hey!" I said casually. "How'd it go?"

She looked a bit upset. "Not many wanted it. Must not have been hungry," she said, dumping the remains of it onto the ground.

I bit back more laughter as I spied a few things that didn't belong floating in the broth. "Yeah...guess not."

oOo

Kaia's POV

This was it. I was finally gonna be free of this hell hole tonight.

I'd been patiently waiting, locked up in my little cell, for too long now. Saruman had only taken me out once over the past several days, and that was only to interrogate me for any information I could tell him about Erin. The biggest thing he wanted was her name, but I hadn't told him anything. I refused to crack, no matter what he did to me. Ever since then, though, I'd remained here, alone. I was only visited once a day by Grima, who only ever dropped off my food and water, then quickly left. Neither of us ever said a thing to each other.

But all of that was done with now. I was tired of sitting here, waiting for the right moment. I was gonna get out of here, whether it was time for me to go yet or not. I waited until night fell and both Saruman and Grima had retired to their rooms for the night. Once I was absolutely sure that they were both locked away in separate rooms, I picked the lock of my cell again, opening the door and quickly slipping out, making sure I had my knife concealed in my boot. I also grabbed my longer sword and its scabbard off of the wall, clipping it to my back. It felt good to have weapons on me again.

I silently snuck up the stairway, my heart pounding with anticipation. I was so ready to be out of here. Once I came to the top of that staircase, I waited for a second, holding my breath and listening for any sound of movement on the opposite side of the big black door. After confirming that I was still alone, I slowly pushed open the door and stepped into the next room...Saruman's throne room.

I knew the way out from here easily. Just through that doorway directly across the room from me was the staircase that led to the entrance of Orthanc. I crossed the room quickly, excited at the prospect of finally getting out. But just as I placed the palm of my hand on the door, ready to push it open...I felt something. Not physically, but...like something was pulling at my heart, telling me to stay behind. I cast a glance over my shoulder, confused, and the first thing my eyes fell on was the pedestal in the center of the room. It looked exactly the same as always. Black, jagged, and something sat on top of it, covered by a dark piece of velvet.

As soon as I looked at the round thing that the cloth was covering, I knew that was what called me to stay behind. I had always been curious as to what that thing was, and why Saruman always had it in here, but kept it covered. _Now seems like as good a time as any to snoop through his stuff, I guess. _I strode up to the pedestal and yanked the fabric off, dropping it onto the smooth floor and staring at the weird thing that sat there in front of me. It didn't look like anything more than an oversized marble. It was black, but...faint flashes of light and color floated around inside it. I ran my fingers over the smooth glass, my hand coming to a stop and resting on its top. My brow furrowed. _Why is he keeping this thing in here?_

Suddenly, there was a pulse of brighter, blue-green light from inside it, and the insides of the glass ball started swirling around. I stared at it, transfixed, and reached up to grab it with my other hand. Just like that, everything around me disappeared, and I could see nothing but the images flashing through my mind.

_Fire. Burning fire._

_ Black clouds spreading across the sky at breakneck speed._

_ Blood-stained grass. The screams of innocent people echoing in the background._

_ A girl with brown hair, lying dead on the ground. _"Erin!" I exclaimed softly. The second I said her name out loud, there was a loud roaring in my ears, and I cringed. The image of Erin dissolved into fire, fire that took the shape of something...an eye.

_The Eye of Sauron. _I felt him searching me, and I wanted to pull my hands away, but couldn't.

_"Erin," _he hissed cruelly, testing the name out, _"will be found."_

I couldn't stand it anymore. With all the mental strength I had, I ripped my hands away from the cursed thing, Sauron's eye fading from my mind as I stumbled backwards, hitting the cold stone wall.

My breathing was panicked as I glanced around, remembering where I was. After a moment, I shakily slid down the wall until I hit the ground. _Erin was dead. I just saw my best friend dead...and I just told the Enemy who she was. _I shuddered, the image of the Eye burned into my mind forever. I felt so guilty. I'd been so worried about her safety for so long, and now I'd just made the worst mistake ever. _She's being hunted. I have to go find her before anyone else does. _

But I couldn't. I just couldn't. Not after what I'd just seen in that glass...thing. All I had done was touch it, and yet I felt so emotionally and physically drained...It made no sense. I couldn't bring myself to leave the tower now...not until I had more information, and a better chance of getting away. I knew now that I'd only have one shot at getting out of this place, and now that the stakes had been raised even higher, there was no room for error.

After several minutes of sitting there, trying to recompose myself, I started making my way back down into my cell, replacing my weapons so I didn't look suspicious. I needed more time alone to think now. _What the hell have I just done?_

oOo

Erin's POV

I watched with a small smile on my face as Kathryn tentatively swung her blade like Aragorn had instructed her to. The guy had offered to take my place as her trainer for sword fighting, and I was glad for it. Don't get me wrong, I love Kathryn like a sister, but...it was obvious that she wasn't cut out for fighting. She was focusing too much on the possibility of messing up and losing a limb, and not paying attention enough to the moves that Aragorn was showing her. She'd gotten better since the first time I'd trained her in Edoras, though. Much better.

After awhile, Éowyn came and sat next to me, also watching her best friend learn how to fight. We both laughed as Aragorn swung at her, only showing her how to do it properly, but Kathryn still jumped and stepped back a few feet. "She doesn't look like she is enjoying herself very much," the woman commented.

I shook my head. "I think Kathryn just isn't confident enough. Hopefully she'll get over that someday soon, though. We're gonna need all the help we can get eventually," I said.

It was quiet for a second, until Éowyn asked me a question out of the blue. "How does it feel to fight in battle?"

I glanced at her, noting the look on her faceand remembering how much of a passion she'd had for battle in the movies and books. "It's...interesting. I always get that initial rush of fear at the very beginning, worried about whether or not we'll win or I'll come out of it alive. But...once you actually get into it, you kind of stop worrying about getting all your technique down and just focus on defending yourself. You really don't even think about dying that much," I said, laughing a bit. "It sounds weird, but...I don't know. Maybe that's just me."

"It is my greatest wish to be able to defend my country someday," she said longingly.

I smiled at her. "Don't be in such a rush to fight with the men, Éowyn. They only keep you away from it because they care about you. And besides...it can be really stressful, too." When she didn't respond, I put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she looked at me. "Just be patient. You'll get your chance someday. I promise."

That, at least, seemed to lift her spirits a bit. "Thank you, Erin." She was about to say something else, when suddenly we heard a scream and both looked up just in time to see Kathryn gripping her sword with two hands, pointing it at Aragorn like he was a bad guy or something.

"Don't scare me like that!" she yelled at him.

Aragorn laughed. "I told you that I wanted to spar with you. Do you not know what that means?"

"I didn't know that it meant you would come flying at me and almost cut my head off!" I rolled my eyes.

"I would never intentionally hurt you, Kathryn," Aragorn said.

"Yeah," she said, dropping her arms. "Key word: _intentionally."_

I laughed. "Oh, come on, Kathryn!" I yelled to my best friend. "You were doing good!"

She shot me a glance, but kept talking to Aragorn. "If we ever get into a serious fight with Orcs, I'm just gonna hide behind you while you do all the killing. Sound good?"

We all laughed at least a little bit at that, and Aragorn just shook his head, walking away and sheathing his sword. "We're done for today," he said to her.

Kathryn let out a breath and came over to us girls. "I swear, that man's seriously gonna kill me one day."

"Only if you don't kill yourself first," I teased.

"Ha ha," she deadpanned. "Very funny." I stuck my tongue out at her.

Suddenly, the call to get the procession moving again was made, and the three of us got back on our feet, gathering up our stuff and getting back to our horses again as we set off to continue our journey to Helm's Deep. It was a pretty smooth journey for most of the afternoon, just with Kathryn, Éowyn, Aragorn and I hanging out together and talking about whatever came to mind. It wasn't until about an hour later that I realized I had barely seen Legolas anywhere all day. "Hey guys, does anyone know where Legolas is?" I asked. Everyone shook their heads, except Aragorn.

"He went ahead to scout our path. I talked to him awhile ago, and he seemed upset. He said something felt wrong." I swore in my head as I realized what this meant. _Wargs. They're coming._

"Okay," I responded. "Did he say what he thought it was that was bothering him?"

Aragorn shook his head. "No. If you want, you could go talk to him. He's just up ahead there." He pointed, and I followed his finger. Sure enough, there was Legolas on top of the hill that we were approaching. I spotted two riders on horses heading over the hill, past him, and knew there were less than a few minutes left until we would be attacked.

"I think I will, actually," I said, handing Frania's reins to Kathryn. "Be awesome for me and hold these." I quickly checked to make sure I had all my weapons still on me, then broke into a run as I sped up the hill and stopped when I reached my elven friend. "What do you see?" I asked.

He was scanning the horizon warily. "I do not know. An evil presence in near...but I cannot place it."

I hesitated as he turned completely around, looking back out over the people of Edoras. _Should I tell him about the Wargs?_A second later, there was a harsh growling sound as well as a man's scream, and we both looked down to the base of the hill just in time to see one of the Rohirrim guards get pounced on and flung out of the mouth of a Warg, with a nasty-looking Orc riding it.

Legolas looked at me. "Go," he said, drawing his bow. "Warn the others. I will take care of this one."

Just as he started to run off, I grabbed his arm. "More are coming. A _lot _more. Be careful." He nodded, then ran off, and I turned and ran back to the crowds just as I heard him fire an arrow.

I bolted down the hillside, and Théoden instantly read the panic on my face. "What is it? What do you see?"

"WARGS!" I shouted. "We're being attacked!" As soon as the words were out of my mouth, cries of fear rang out from the women and children in the crowds. I didn't stop running, heading directly up to Kathryn, who was looking at me wide-eyed. "You coming?" I said as I took Fraina's reins from her and mounted my horse.

"Are you insane? No!" she said.

I sighed, but nodded, understanding her. If she wasn't ready, she wasn't ready...but it still freaked me out to have to be split up from her. "Okay. Go with Éowyn and the others. You'll beat us to Helm's Deep."

"But you will meet me there?" She looked worried.

I smiled at her. "Of course I will."

"Okay," Kathryn replied, though she didn't seemed fully convinced. "Don't die!"

Despite the chaos around me, I managed to laugh. "I'll try my best." With that, I rode right up to where Théoden and the other men of Rohan were gathering together, stopping next to Aragorn. "You ready?"

He nodded. "Where is Legolas?"

I pointed up ahead of us. "He's trying to kill some now while he can. He'll be back." Aragorn nodded, and before long the call was given off to ride forward. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kathryn running off with the others to safety. _You be careful, too. _

As we came over the top of the first hill, I smiled to myself, spotting Legolas over at the peak of the next one, arrows whistling through the air and already bringing five or six of the beasts down. "LEGOLAS!" I shouted as we grew closer. He turned and ran back to where Gimli was riding Arod up to meet him, grabbing the neck of his steed and swinging up underneath of it to mount his horse. "Like a boss." I smiled to myself and moved over so that we were riding side by side. "This is about to get ugly."

He nodded as we drew closer to our enemy. "Try and stay with me. We can protect each other."

I nodded. I was okay with that. "And if we get separated?"

He hesitated before answering. "...We meet after the battle is done."

I smiled. _He finally learned to trust in my fighting abilities. _"Got it." Théoden gave a battle cry, and I looked forward again, drawing my own long sword from Galadriel and joining the cries of the other men. "Good luck, you guys!" I said, not forgetting about Gimli, who sat behind the elf, axe ready to go.

"Same to you, lass!" he called out. I winked at him and turned forward, adrenaline rushing through me as the two opposing sides collided with each other harshly. Some of the horsemen were taken out instantly, and I ended up playing chicken with a Warg, moving to the side and slicing my sword deep into its furry hide at the last second. From there, it was absolute madness. Warriors of both sides were scattered everywhere, each locked in their own battles. Somehow Legolas and I made it through the first bit as a team, though Gimli fell off of Arod early on in the battle.

Legolas twisted around in his saddle and stopped Arod, firing an arrow to kill one of the beasts that was about to pounce on Gimli. I pulled Frania around also, covering him for the few seconds that he was helping his friend. A Warg rode right past us, and I slammed my sword down hard onto its muzzle, emitting a cry of pain from the beast, then lifted up my sword just enough to catch its Orc rider in the shoulder a second later.

"Erin!" Legolas shouted, and I turned around just in time to duck as an Orc swung at my head, kick him, then stab him in the throat. I nodded my thanks to the elf, who rode up beside me, and together we took off as a duo again. Legolas was firing arrows left and right, and I took it upon myself to protect us from anything that tried to come up on the sides and attack that way.

Suddenly, I noticed one that was galloping at full speed towards us, and I realized that it was going to jump up and try and knock us off of our horses (or worse). I quickly sheathed my sword and drew out my bow, but fumbled a bit when it came to knocking my arrow and aiming at a moving target. Just as I let my arrow fly, I felt something zoom past my ear, and I looked up at my target in shock to see that both Legolas' and my arrows hit the thing in the face at the exact same time. We both looked at each other for a moment, then went back to our regularly scheduled programming.

About five minutes after that little stunt, I felt a hand on my foot, and looked down to see an Orc's claw grasping my ankle tightly. I tried to swing my blade down and cut him, but I was too late. Next thing I knew, the thing gave a huge yank and I lot my balance, literally being ripped out of my saddle and tumbling to the ground. I rolled twice, then got to my feet, putting away my one sword and whipping out Kaia's twin blades that I still had as the Orc approached me. I heard Legolas shout my name, but he too was caught in a one-on-one battle with a Warg and its rider. _Looks like I'm on my own for the moment._

I didn't wait for my opponent to attack first, I just went at him, slicing Kaia's blades through the air quickly. Somehow he dodged them and managed to get a good kick in at my legs. The sudden burst of pain (after all, he was wearing metal boots) made my knees give out, and I went down, but not before thrusting her blades upwards.

To my surprise, he hit at them, almost knocking them out of my hands. _Ahh, I see. He wants a fist fight. I can do that. _I quickly got back up and shoved her black blades back into their sheaths, flexing my fingers. I threw a punch at his face, but he sidestepped and elbowed me in the side, sending me stumbling off a few steps. I tried really hard to hit him, but he was an excellent dodger, and though he didn't ever really hit me that hard, I noticed after awhile that he was driving me back. I shoved him away and risked a glance back over my shoulder for a split second.

Bad idea. I heard a screech, and turned around to see the Orc pounce, landing right on top of me and knocking me on my back. His filthy hands grabbed at my neck, and I struggled to fight him off. Finally, with a powerful kick, I felt his body weight leave mine, as well as feeling the chain of my necklace snap and leave with him. "Hey!" I shouted, looking up to see a flash of silver as it flew out of his hand. I charged straight at him, punching him solidly in the face and knocking him out with another blow to the skull. When he hit the ground, I instantly looked over to where I'd seen my necklace fall, and ran over to grab it.

I saw it lying on the stone ground, and as I jogged over to it, I realized that it had just missed falling off the edge of the cliff that Aragorn was supposed to get dragged off of. I cast a glance over the edge, seeing a glimpse of the river below. _That reminds me...where is Aragorn, anyway?_

Just as I bent over to pick up my necklace, I heard a shout, and my head snapped up just in time to identify a furry mass inches from my face before it slammed into me with full force. The last thing I remembered was feeling myself being pushed along the rocky ground, and then feeling nothing underneath me before I fell unconscious.

**A/N: *GASP* ...And of course, I'm leaving you with that cliffhanger. ;D Before I go, I just wanted to point out that I added up the total number of reviews that these books as a series have gotten...143! That's incredible! You guys have no idea how much I love you for that. :3 Hugs and cookies for everyone! *throws cookies***


	11. The War Has Started

**A/N: Helloooo, my awesomesauce readers! :D Sorry that I missed an update yesterday, but I wanted to take a break from writing for a day so that I could work on some other stuff. I'm also an artist on deviantART (I go by the same username on there, too, so go check me out if you want! :D) and I've got a LOT of stuff that seriously needs to get done, so I've been working on that. :3 I feel like I've been spending a bit too much time on this fanfic, anyways. XD Again, my apologies! Hope you like this very depressing and sad chapter! **

Staying Strong: Chapter Eleven

Legolas' POV

I sliced one of my knives across one last Orc's throat, looking around as he dropped to the ground, dead. The battle was over. Our side had won, and the last few rogue Wargs and their riders that had gone unslain were fleeing from the small battlefield, taking off to return to their master. I wiped my blade clean on a patch of grass as best as I could, resheathed both of them, and sighed. We had lost many of our men, and I cringed the slightest bit as I passed a dead horse on the ground with a grotesquely mangled leg.

While I did feel relieved that we had come out on top, my heart was unsettled. Erin and Aragorn were not within sight, and I had promised to meet the former after battle. "Erin!" I called, striding across the field. "Aragorn!"

"Where are ya, lass?" Gimli also shouted from not far off. "Aragorn?"

Though I hated to admit it, fear stirred in my heart when I scanned the surrounding area again and did not see either of them anywhere. _Ai Valar, please let them be alright...especially her... _The grass faded to a rocky ledge up ahead, and my eyes caught something lying there near the edge of it. I walked up towards it, trying to make out what it was, when I heard a dying cackle from my left. I turned, and hatefully glared at an Orc who lay on his back, laughing even with black blood dribbling from between his lips. I went directly to him, and Gimli also came up behind me, gripping his axe tightly.

"Tell me what happened, and I will ease your passing," he growled lowly.

"He's..." the Orc coughed. "Dead!" The fear from before rose a bit, though I did not let it show. "Took a little tumble off the cliff."

"And what of the girl?" I asked urgently. Even from a vile creature such as he, any information was useful. "You saw her, did you not?"

The Orc grinned wickedly. "She...went with 'im."

I tensed, praying to the heavens that what he said was not true. _No, it cannot be! His words are false! _I gripped him by the collar fiercely. "You lie!" I spat.

The creature laughed again, but it died on his lips as he breathed his last. I shook him a bit, cursing the Orcs. _He must be lying. He has to be!_

Suddenly, Gimli let out a soft gasp. "Lad...his necklace..." He reached into the Orc's hand, and pulled out Aragorn's Evenstar necklace, given to him by none other than Arwen herself. I stared at it, unbelieving, for a few seconds, then sharply rose and started scanning the rocky ground around me, on the verge of panic. _What did I see out here earlier? What was it? _

A few seconds later, I froze mid-step. Time seemed to stand completely still, and I almost did not want to reach out and touch what I saw lying on the ground, thinking that maybe if I left it be, it would disappear as nothing more than a figment of my imagination. But it was not so. I reached down and picked up the object off of the ground...A silver pendant, bearing the symbol of the Galadhrim. My heart all but shattered as I looked at it. _No...Erin, she..._

My mind raced as I gripped it tightly, quickly walking up to the edge of the cliff. _If anything, let them be spared by not falling too far..._Again, my hopes were smashed as I looked down, my eyes widening a bit in horror as I stared down at nothing but sharp, jagged rocks and the swirling, swift-moving current of a blue-green river.

Reality slammed into me like a stone wall. They were both gone. D...dead...Aragorn...and Erin...both of them. My jaw clenched tightly as I fell silent. I felt a lump in my throat, but refused to cry. _No. Not now. She..._My mind went completely blank. I was in despair over losing Aragorn, yes...but Erin was a different story. I love her.

_Loved,_ I corrected myself bitterly. _Loved in the past...when she was alive. _I stared blankly down at her necklace, the emblem cupped in my palm. _She is gone now. Never to return...and I never even __got to say goodbye. I never told her..._I felt frozen, like I could not move at all. I wanted to speak...to say something, but I could not, even if I had tried. I suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to jump down into the water myself and join her.

A voice to my right suddenly spoke, jolting me from my thoughts. "Get the wounded on horses! The wolves of Isengard will return! Leave the dead." I turned my head to recognize the face of King Théoden, speaking to one of his officers. How long had he been standing next to me? _Leave the dead...no...we cannot just...I cannot just leave them..._

The king of Rohan saw the look I was giving him and returned it with an apologetic expression of his own. "Come." That was all he said before turning and walking away.

I stared back down at the waters below. _Leave the dead. _How could I? How could they expect me to just walk away after losing both a dear friend and a loved one like nothing was wrong? Maybe they were not dead...perhaps they could just not be easily seen from this angle.

_...No. They are dead. Erin and Aragorn are dead. You can do nothing. _I finally accepted the bitter, cruel truth, and was just about to turn away when something else came to mind that crushed me more than all other thoughts. _And Erin might have been spared, had you not foolishly left her on her own in battle. _I remembered it clearer than anything. She fell from her horse...an Orc confronted her. I had seen in with my own eyes. _And what did you do? You worried about yourself instead of her. Even when you had promised yourself that you would protect her no matter what. You have failed._

"I failed her..." a voice said. It sounded unstable and full of despair, as silent as the wind.

"Don't blame this on yourself, lad," another spoke up. _Gimli. _"You didn't fail anyone." I glanced at the dwarf, confused. _...That was my voice? _It was silent for a bit longer before he continued. "...The king's right. We should go find Arod and the other horses." I did not move. "Come on, Legolas." I felt a hand grip my shoulder briefly, and then it let go as Gimli walked off. I was the only one who remained at the cliff's edge, unmoving for the longest time. _...I failed her..._

oOo

Kathryn's POV

After we ran off, escaping the Wargs, it was sort of panicked and chaotic for awhile. All of us women and children were just kinda focusing on running away, though I felt kinda guilty at leaving the battle...especially since Erin had so willingly jumped into the fight without question. _I wish I could be that confident about going into battle, _I thought to myself as we ran along. Éowyn had made her way to the front of the line, and was now shouting orders for everyone to move quickly and stay together. I jogged alongside of her.

After a moment, she sighed and turned forward, glancing at me. "I wish I could've gone to fight with the others," she said a bit bitterly.

I looked at her like she was crazy. "Seriously?" I'd known that Éowyn thought it was really sexist that men were allowed to fight in war and not women, but still! "You'd willingly throw yourself out there like that?"

She nodded. "Of course! I would not hesitate to defend my people."

I looked away, frowning. _Am I the only one who doesn't feel that way? I mean...I...I can't even say that I want to fight. I really don't. I feel like I'd die within the first few minutes of it. _

_So you ran away like a coward? _another part of me scolded. _You should know better than that. Now your friends are risking their lives to defend these poor people, and you do nothing to help._

_ Oh, shut up. _I exhaled and focused on keeping pace with Éowyn. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about this kind of crap. I could deal with a guilty conscience later...but it didn't help to be hearing the sounds of swords clashing and the battle cries of the warriors off in the distance.

oOo

We made it to Helm's Deep the next morning. Apparently we hadn't been as far away as I'd thought. When we came to the top of a hill, Éowyn stopped in her tracks, and I looked up from where I'd been talking to her, my eyes widening. "...Woah."

It was pretty impressive, to say the least. Erin had described it pretty darn well when she'd said 'It's like a castle cut straight out of the mountain.' The grey walls were weather-beaten and worn, and some parts of it had gaps that were filled with other small stones to reinforce it. A large stone tower stuck out of the whole of what I assumed was the Keep, and to the left of the main complex was a much shorter, but still really big wall that stretched out hundreds of feet along the ground. A long stone walkway slanted up out of the dirt ground, leading up to the fortress' wooden doors.

"That's so cool!" I said, smiling.

Éowyn nodded. "This fortress has stood for many long years, protecting our people in times of need. It certainly won't fail us now." An older woman came up to her, smiling and thanking her for leading them all to safety. We started heading down into the ravine, and before long we were walking up to the front doors, with Éowyn in the lead. They opened for us as we approached them, and my best friend and I stopped in the entryway as the rest of the Rohirrim filed in around us, everyone instantly scattering and going to find a place to put their things.

"Well!" I said, clapping my hands together. "I guess we should go find places to sleep somewhere, huh?"

The shieldmaiden of Rohan nodded. "Yes, Kathryn, we should. Come with me. My uncle will likely have already had rooms prepared for all of us, including Lord Aragorn and our other guests." Together we made our way into the heart of the Keep, and Éowyn picked out a room for herself, giving me the one right next to it. "Perhaps Erin can share it with you when she returns...if you do not mind, that is."

I grinned. "Are you kidding? She'll love that! Thanks, Éowyn." I slipped into the small, but cozy room and threw my small bag of things onto the mattress, sighing as I flopped down next to it. Again, my mind wandered to Erin, Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli...all the others who had fought out there. _I hope they come back soon. I miss them...and I'm worried about them. _I rolled onto my side, fully crawling into bed, and was fast asleep within minutes.

oOo

I wok up a couple hours later at about one or two in the afternoon. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I sat up and looked around. "Oh, God...Have the others gotten back yet?" I got out of bed and slipped out of the room, making my way next door to where I hoped Éowyn would be. I frowned a bit when I saw that she wasn't in there. "Gosh dang it, woman..." I mumbled, picking up my skirts and heading outside. "Making me run all over the place to look for you..."

Eventually, I made it out of the Keep, sighing when I saw that the sky was a dank, cloudy grey. "Well that's depressing," I commented. I then pulled a random guard aside. "Hey, do you know where Lady Éowyn is?" I asked.

He pointed down to the lower levels. "When last I saw, she was making her way down there."

"Thanks." I turned away and started heading down as well, but not before something caught my eye out in the fields. I stopped in the middle of walking, gasping when I realized what I was seeing. There was a blur of color on the horizon, moving fast...and that could only mean one thing. "THEY'RE BACK! OH MY GOD, EVERYONE'S BACK!" I shouted, now breaking into a full on run to make it down to the entrances. By the time I got down there, several others were shouting to make way for the king, and I stepped out just in time to see Éowyn running over to the doorway, too. I stopped next to my friend, grinning. "They made it!" I said happily, and she smiled, too.

Suddenly, the doors swung open, and several people of Rohan gathered around, happy smiles on their faces as King Théoden trotted through the doors on his horse, followed by his loyal troops. I smiled a bit more when I instantly recognized the faces of Legolas and Gimli, though both of them were looking down.

Éowyn seemed surprised at the amount of men present, though. "So few..." she said quietly. "So few of you have returned!"

I blinked. "Well...you did win, right?" I asked the king as he dismounted.

He nodded, but his expression was somber. "Our people are safe, but we have paid for it with many lives." He looked at Éowyn for a moment, like there was something he needed to tell her, but then hesitantly glanced away, busying himself with his horse. I looked back to the crowd of people flowing in, my smile dying a bit. _Where the heck are Erin and Aragorn?_

Suddenly, there came a gruff voice from beside us. "My ladies." We both looked down to see Gimli there, sadness in his eyes.

Éowyn looked down at the dwarf. "Lord Aragorn," she asked warily, "...where is he?" She looked at me for a second, panic in her eyes. _Oh no..._

He didn't answer immediately, but when he did...he choked on his words. "...He fell."

I froze, almost not wanting to ask my next question. "...And Erin?" Gimli looked up at me sadly, not saying a word. "No..." I breathed. _Please tell me this isn't happening. Please tell me she's just at the back of the crowd. I need a direct answer!_ "Legolas!" I called out, spinning around and expecting the elf to walk over with Erin by his side, assuring me everything was okay. My pulse raced when I saw the blonde walking off, head down. _No no no no no... _I ran over to him, putting hand on his shoulder. "Legolas, where's Erin?"

My lips parted in shock when he lifted his head and looked at me. Tears were sliding down his face, and he closed his eyes for a moment, looking like it pained him to talk to me. When he finally did say something, it was nothing more than a whisper, but even then I could hear his voice shaking. "...Erin is dead." His breath hitched, and he quickly walked away from me, ashamed to be seen in such a state.

I just stood there for a long time, staring at him as he walked away, my eyes lingering on the last spot that I could see him at before his green back disappeared. _...It's not possible...She...she really died? _I felt so guilty for running away. _Like a coward. She gave her life to protect me without a second thought. _I felt hot tears drip from my own eyes as I broke into a run, heading straight for my room. _I never would've left her if I'd known that she wouldn't come back! _I remembered her smiling face as she rode off into battle after saying goodbye to me. _Smiling. She wasn't even afraid. _I cursed myself for being so afraid, whipping the tears off of my face as I cried. Once I got to what should've been _our _room, I ran straight in, slamming the door behind me and dropping to my knees at the side of the bed, sobbing until I couldn't anymore.

oOo

Kaia's POV

That damn marble thing was driving me insane. For so long now, I'd sat here in my cell, trying so hard to make sense of what I'd seen. Was the vision of Erin dying something that had already happened? Or was it only something that could happen, but not one hundred percent certain to happen? Maybe it was all completely fake...something Sauron made up just to scare me.

_Sauron. _I shuddered a bit at the name, the memory of the Eye coming back to me. Not only did he know about Erin's existence, I realized, he now knew about me as well. I hated the idea of him doing anything to either one of us. And of course, the other flashes of images were confusing, too. What did fire have to do with anything? And those black clouds...they had come rolling in overtop of what looked like a city on the banks of a river...but I couldn't be sure about that. Where was that place, anyway? Was it an important place? I assumed that Sauron was planning to attack there...but why would I have seen that from all the way over here in Saruman's tower? Then there was the biggest question of them all: Would I ever get out of Orthanc alive and see my friends again? Was I doomed to be stuck here for an eternity?

Suddenly, in the midst of all the questions flying through my head, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Quickly making sure my knife was still safely hidden away, I looked up just in time to see Saruman and Grima come up to the doors of the cell, unlocking them and cuffing me as I was led out. "Come," Saruman said, a wicked smile on his wrinkled face. "I have something for you to see." I tensed at this, but said nothing as he led us through the throne room and off to the side, stepping into his private office. I shuddered as we passed the magic stone, but thankfully neither of them noticed.

When we stopped in the new room, I wrinkled my nose. The air smelled heavily of gunpowder. Saruman led me to stand over next to him, by another pedestal that held a stone bowl on top of it that was covered by a piece of fabric. I casually looked around as he walked around the room, looking for something. His office was cluttered with all kinds of papers and books that were stacked here and there. Some of them had notes (most likely about his diabolical plans) written all over them, but I couldn't read his messy handwriting. There were lots of flickering candles mounted on walls and stands in various places throughout the room, and several tall, wide windows whose glass hardly even let in any light were set into the walls. As Saruman searched, Grima started talking. "Helm's Deep has but one weakness...a small hole at its wall's base, which is little more than a drain." _Helm's Deep...that's where Erin and the others are._

Eventually, the wizard found what he was looking for: a small beaker filled with a fine black powder...gunpowder, I realized, as he pulled the cloth off of the bowl and dumped the rest of it from the beaker to the bowl, filling it to the brim. "How?" Grima questioned, stepping closer with a candle in his hand. "How can fire undo stone? What kind of device could-"

"Uhh, dude? You probably don't want to do that." I nodded to the candle in his hand, and Saruman pushed him away before the flame touched the gunpowder.

"If the wall is breached, Helm's Deep will fall," he said firmly. He started walking out of his office, pulling me along with him.

"Even if it were, it would take a number of yondreckoning _thousands _to storm the king," Grima protested from behind us.

I saw Saruman smirk a little as we passed through the throne room again. "Tens of thousands..."

"But my lord, there is no such force!"

The three of us emerged onto a balcony just outside of the throne room, and as Saruman stepped forward into the daylight, a loud horn rang through the air, followed by a thunderous roar. I stopped, my eyes bulging out of my head. There was...black! Just...nothing but black surrounding Orthanc where the ground should've been. With a start, I realized that every single black thing down there was an Uruk-Hai, formed in ranks, all holding sharp spears and weapons in their hands. Some even carried black, shredded banners with the White Hand of Saruman painted onto them. They banged their spears on the ground and stomped around as a welcome to their master. _It's an army..._I realized with horror. _There's gotta be at least ten thousand of them!_

The war cries shushed when Saruman raised a hand. After a moment, he spoke, his voice booming with authority. "A new power is rising! It's victory...is at hand!" The Uruks broke out into roars of triumph at this. "The land shall be stained with the blood of Rohan! March to Helm's Deep! Leave none alive!"

I looked out at the army, then back at Saruman, who had a sadistic gleam in his eye. "No..."

"TO WAR!" the wizard cried, lifting his arms. The Uruks cheered even louder than before.

_I have to stop this. This can't happen. They'll never win against all these guys! _I looked back and forth across the mass of evil minions desperately. _There's gotta be some way I can help...Something...Anything..._But at the moment, all I could really do was watch, terrified, as the Uruks turned and started running off to Helm's Deep, flowing out of Isengard like a black river. Beside me, I heard Saruman mutter something quietly as he watched his army move out. "There will be no dawn...for Men." Without another word, he and Grima headed back inside, pulling me along with them and taking me back to my cell.

After they locked me up again, I just sat there, shocked at what I'd just witnessed. "...That was it, then. The war has started..."

**A/N: Sorry about this chapter being kinda short, but I felt like this was a good place to end it off. :3 Please review! It makes me smile :)**


	12. Recovery

Staying Strong: Chapter Twelve

Erin's POV

I remember feeling nothing but an incredible pain...and it was everywhere. Every limb on my body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, as did my eyelids. My muscles were so sore...It felt like I'd just gotten run over by a semi-truck. After a minute or so, I finally noticed that my legs felt cold and wet. The rest of my body wasn't, though. From the waist up, I was warm, and draped across something soft, yet cold at the same time.

With much struggle I managed to lift my eyelids, and instantly regretted it. I blinked rapidly against the blindingly bright sunlight, almost not wanting to open them again. In the end, though, my curiosity got the better of me, and again I opened my eyes. It took me a second to figure out that my world was titled because my head was laying sideways on my arm, which was stretched out over the soft thing. My other arm was also loosely draped across it, and without even moving my head I realized why my legs were cold. _I'm in a river. _

The sound of the rushing water filled my ears, and I stared straight again, confused as to why everything seemed to be getting farther and farther away. _Wait...I'm moving. I'm floating on something...but what? _From the odd angle I was laying at, I could see that I was half-laying on something brown and furry. _What is that? _I tried to remember, but I...I just couldn't. All I could remember was blackness, pain, and everything I'd felt and seen since I opened my eyes.

After another minute or so, I finally took a deep breath and closed my eyes again, realizing that it would be pointless to try and do anything. My body just...hurt. So, so much... I let the soft sounds of the river around me lull me back into a pained, dreamless sleep.

oOo

When I opened my eyes next, I realized after a moment that I had stopped moving. I felt the slightest bit more energized now, so I opened my eyes again, sort of relieved to find that I was still lying on top of the furry thing. At this point, I noticed that the pain had sort of focused itself into specific areas of my body, instead of just a searing pain that was everywhere. It seemed to be in my left shoulder, all across my back, down my left leg, and at my right hip the most. My forehead also stung a bit when I moved.

After about five minutes of nothing but staring out into open space a breathing, I decided that I would have to look around and figure out where I was. With a painful effort, I lifted my head a bit and glanced around, my senses still sluggish and groggy. I looked down at what I was floating on, and instantly cringed. It was a dead animal of some kind...it looked familiar. I tried to think back before the blackness and remember what had happened.

_It's a Warg, _I suddenly remembered. I looked back down at the creature's face. _It's cold because it's dead. _Memories of the battle with these creatures of shadow came flooding back to me, and I remembered reaching down to pick up my necklace from Haldir before getting run over by this thing. _It pushed me off the cliff, _I realized. _I must've landed on top of it or something when I fell. _

Suddenly, my eyes widened a bit. _My necklace! _My hand flew to my neck, but I felt no chain or pendant there. I looked out at the wide expanse of river around me. _Oh, no...if I lost it..._I laid my head back down on the Warg's body. It may have been gross, but I still didn't have the strength to get up and move yet. I closed my eyes, trying to remember any other details that I could.

I laid there for a long time...maybe half an hour or so, before my eyes opened in shock again. _I wasn't alone. Aragorn fell, too. _I lifted my head again, cringing a bit. _I have to go find him. _I looked around, expecting to see him floating down the river like he did in the movie, but saw nothing. _Where is he? _I started to panic a bit. _Oh gosh...I'd better be able to find him somehow. If I can't find him, then all of Rohan is screwed. _

Again, I lowered my head back down, laying there for another long period of time to gather strength. I wish I could've just gotten up and started running, though. Every second I laid there was another yard farther away from me that Aragorn could be going. Eventually, I finally tried to push myself off of the Warg. As soon as I slid off and my back sunk into the water, I swore. It stung so badly...like someone had just slapped it. I tried twisting around and seeing what was wrong, but at the moment it hurt to much to even move. So I closed my eyes and started floating on my back, letting the current carry me to land.

Half a minute later, I felt myself gently bump up against a rocky shoreline. I managed to sit up and slowly push myself back so that only my legs were in the water. The back of my left leg and my back both felt like they were on fire. I bent my leg a bit so that it was at least out of the water and cringed as I looked at it. It was nothing bad, just a bunch of scrapes that looked like incredibly bad brushburns that were dotted up my leg. It still stung something awful, though. My leggings had been ripped up, and I sighed when I realized that I'd probably have to get new ones.

That wasn't a major concern of mine now, though. First I had to find out where Aragorn was...but I still couldn't bring myself to try and stand up, let alone walk. I leaned back on my hands and closed my eyes, resting again for about another ten minutes. When I opened them and looked around again, I noticed the corpse of the Warg not far off. Apparently it had caught on a rock that was sticking out of the shoreline, because it still wasn't moving.

I looked down at my leg again. At least it had stopped bleeding already. That was good. I then looked at my right hip, pulling up my tunic a bit to fully see the wound. I must've hit a rock there, because there was a decent-sized gash in it, just below my pelvis. It was still bleeding a bit, and a tensed a bit in fear, wondering how much blood I'd lost from that. I slowly unhooked my Lórien cloak from my back (which now had a bunch of tears in it) and wrapped it around my hip like a bandage. I hated to get it all bloody, but hey. What's a girl to do?

After another short period of rest, I finally got to my feet shakily. I realized them just how badly my left shoulder hurt, and glanced at it, wincing. It looked like I'd dislocated it somehow, and I bit my lip when I tried to move it. I could barely lift it up, and even that was almost impossible; it hurt so bad. I settled for slowly trudging away from the Warg, headed downstream where I would hopefully locate Aragorn.

Thankfully, it didn't take me that long to find him. I walked along for about fifteen minutes until I rounded a bend in the rocks, and my spirits lifted when I saw his unconscious form washed up on the beach. I slowly made my way over to him, and dropped to my knees by his head, momentarily ignoring the sting that went up my leg at this. "Aragorn..." I whispered. My voice was hoarse and rough. I pushed a couple of stray hairs away from his face. He stirred a bit, but didn't say or do anything else after that.

I exhaled, turning my face to the skies and saying a silent prayer of thanks as I laid down next to him on my stomach, getting as comfortable as I could on the rocky ground. I had found him, and he was still alive. That was good enough for me right now.

oOo

Kathryn's POV

I shifted underneath my covers in my bed again and sighed. I'd tried to go to sleep almost three hours ago, but I just couldn't do it. I felt exhausted from all the crying I'd done that day, but still...I just couldn't fall asleep. Even now, Erin came to mind again, and fresh tears sprung up in my eyes, I quickly wiped them away. _I didn't think I'd have any left by now. _Finally accepting the fact that I just wasn't tired enough to sleep, I pushed my covers aside and got out of bed, simply standing by the bedside for a moment. Still feeling restless, I took a shaky breath and slipped out of my bedroom, my bare feet quietly padding against the cool stone floors as I took off down the hallway. I didn't know this place like I knew the Golden Hall in Edoras, so I was pretty much just blindly walking around the Keep, staring at nothing.

I still couldn't fully wrap my mind around the fact that Erin was gone, and wasn't coming back. It was like I was expecting her to return again, smiling and laughing like she always did and making jokes with me like nothing had ever happened. But...she wasn't. She was gone forever. I swallowed, trying to make the tightness in my throat and chest go away. It didn't. What was I supposed to do now? I didn't remember everything that was supposed to happen in the movies like she did. All I remembered was that the Battle of Helm's Deep would be here soon, and after we won that we'd go back to Edoras. Then some people that I couldn't specifically remember the names of went to Minas Tirith, there was a battle there, uhh...Théoden died, I think...maybe Éowyn, too...Then there was another fight in front of Mordor, Frodo dropped the Ring into Mount Doom, and then there was the big happy ending. I didn't feel satisfied with just that little bit of information, though. Call me what you will, but...I'd feel a lot safer about all of this if Erin was still around to tell me that things were okay.

And then there was this big battle to think about. I honestly didn't want to fight anything here, but...I would totally do it if it meant avenging Erin's death. Anger briefly flared up in my heart when I thought of Saruman. _His minions are the ones that did this. He will pay. They all will. _Even with that determination, though, I still wasn't confident enough in my own skills. How much longer did we have until this big fight? Maybe I could get Éowyn to teach me some of her skills before it happened.

At that moment, I suddenly felt cold air on my face, and looked up to see that I had somehow made it outside of the main halls of the Keep. I was now out on the open stone area of the topmost level. I silently walked up to the small raised stone platform in the center of the surrounding wall and stood next to the steps, leaning on the railing and looking out over the emptiness of the ravine that Helm's Deep was hidden away in. It was still dark out, and by the position of the moon, I guessed that it was about one or two in the morning. My eyes dropped to the level below me briefly, and then I looked around the level I was currently standing on, confirming that I was alone.

I was almost finished my scan of the surrounding area, but I stopped and blinked, frowning a bit when I noticed that I actually wasn't alone. Someone was sitting inside the raised area that really nothing more than a strip of flat stone between two walls that came up to about your waist when you were standing. From there, three more steps were built up out of it to get a good look of the whole expanse of land that was here. This person was curled up into a small ball, their back pressed against the low wall of the rock, and was hunched over in such a way that I hadn't seen them earlier, nor could I see their face clearly.

Out of curiosity, I quietly walked up to the person, not wanting to startle them. Once I was next to the small figure, I gasped. It was Legolas, curled up and fast asleep out here, with his green elvish cloak wrapped around him like a blanket. "Legolas!" I whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Instantly his eyes shot open, and before I knew it he had my wrist in a death grip. As soon as he recognized my face, though, the panic in his eyes faded, and he released my hand. "Forgive me, Kathryn. I did not know it was you."

I shot him a questioning look. "Why in the world are you sleeping out here alone?"

He didn't answer right away, instead choosing to stand up and stretch a bit. "I did not intend to fall asleep, actually," he said, looking out at the stars instead of directly at me. "I had just...come out here to think for awhile. I could not sleep earlier."

I nodded. "I can relate." I leaned back against the short wall next to him, and it was silent for a moment. "...You're thinking about her too, aren't you?"

Deep sorrow flickered in his blue eyes for a moment, but then quickly disappeared, like he didn't want me to see it. "Yes," he said, voice barely above a whisper. "...I still cannot believe that she...she is gone."

"Same here," I said sadly. "I feel awful for not going into battle with her and helping."

At that comment, Legolas' expression hardened. "The fault is mine alone, if anything. I swore to protect her...and I failed."

I looked up at him, frowning again. He seemed so broken over this. "Hey, don't beat yourself up about it. It wasn't your fault...From what I understand, it was just...unlucky chance that she fell off that cliff."

"I promised her we would stay together, though," he said, avoiding my gaze still. "I told her I would keep her safe. And now, Erin is..."

He didn't need to finish. I saw how much it hurt him, even to think about it. "Legolas..." I sighed. "Do you think she'd be happy if she heard you talking like that?" The elf glanced at me for a second, but said nothing. "That's what I thought. Listen, I know it's hard losing her...trust me. I'm just as heartbroken about it as you. But...if she was here right now, she wouldn't want either of us to just sit here and constantly grieve over her." Legolas looked down, and I followed his gaze to see that he was looking at something in his hand. "What's that?" I asked.

He gripped it tightly for a moment, closing his eyes and exhaling before he showed it to me. "...Her necklace. She lost it during battle, I assume."

"Oh yeah..." I'd seen her wearing it before. "That's the one from Haldir, isn't it?" Erin had told me once about how they were dating. "...How do you think he'll take it?"

"Not well, I would imagine," he said. After a long moment of silence, he then added "...As selfish as it may sound, though, I just...I do not want to have to give it back to him. It is all I have left of her."

I looked up at him again. He was staring down at the thing, but not only sadly. There was something else in his expression...almost like...longing. "Legolas? You okay?"

For a very long time, he didn't answer. The longest silence yet stretched between us, and for a second I thought he wasn't going to say anything at all. Finally, though, he did. "...Haldir was not the only one whose heart she held."

My jaw dropped a bit, and I felt a thousand times more pity for Legolas as I realized what he meant. "Oh dude...Legolas, I'm so sorry." _All this time, he'd loved her to?...Had she known that?_

Judging by the look on his face when he finally lifted his gaze to meet mine, I thought not. "It was not of your doing, Kathryn. You have nothing to apologize for."

"No, it's just...I feel so horrible. For you, I mean."

"Do not be," he said quietly. "After all...she already cared for him deeply. I could not have brought myself to separate that."

_Awww...that's so sweet! God dang it, Erin! Why'd you have to go and die? Now Legolas is over here having no idea what to do, like a lost puppy. _Without asking, I reached over and hugged him tightly.

He tensed at first, but then hugged me back. When I let him go, he looked at me, confused. "Why did you do that?"

"You needed it," I said, offering him a tiny smile of encouragement. I then looked back out at the empty ravine again. We stood there quietly for awhile longer before I spoke up. "...We should probably head back to our rooms. I'm actually starting to feel tired now."

Legolas nodded. "As am I." We turned and walked back to our respective rooms together, saying goodnight to each other as I slipped into my own room, leaving him on his own.

I crawled back into my bed, staring up at the ceiling for awhile before my eyelids started to droop closed. "Erin...you have no idea how much you're missed."

oOo

Erin's POV

I awoke to the gentle touch of a hand on my good shoulder, but didn't open my eyes just yet. "Erin..." a voice whispered. It was weak and faint. "...You're alive..."

"Yes," I breathed, lifting my head just enough to see Aragorn still laying next to me, his hand gingerly draped across my shoulder. "...I'm alive, and so are you."

The ranger nodded a bit, but even now I could see that he had been unluckier than I in his fall. He had a nasty scrape that was still bleeding a bit on his left upper arm, and a cut on his head that had bled into his dark hair a bit. In general, he just looked really beat up and pained. His hand fell from where it had been touching my shoulder, landing on the stony shore. He turned his head away from me, taking several minutes to do nothing but take deep, shuddering breaths. It comforted me to know that he would survive so that I didn't have to worry too much about him at this point.

Finally, he rolled over onto his side, though it looked like it took almost all of his strength to do so. "...You fell with me," he said softly.

I nodded. "Yes...I did..." Neither of us said anything more. Aragorn slipped back into a deep sleep, and I managed to sit up again, checking out my wounds once more. The scrapes on the back of my leg still weren't bleeding, but they still stung as all brushburns do. I then turned my attention to my hip, and cringed a bit at the sight of the blood that had leaked right through the elvish cloak a bit. I untied it and pulled it off, dried blood cracking and peeling as I did so. I bit my lip, refusing to cry out and wake Aragorn up. _Oh gosh...frick, that hurts so bad..._

Eventually, I managed to peel away the fabric completely. I slowly crawled over to the river and set the cloak in there to soak and maybe clean itself out a bit, pinning it down under a stone to keep it from floating away. (If you're wondering how hard it was to do this with only one arm...you have no idea.) After a minute or so, I pulled it out of the water and wrung it out a bit, then used one of the clean areas to start cleaning off the gash in my side. Every time I touched the thing, it felt like I was stabbing it again, but I sucked it up. I had to clean it or it would get infected.

Just as I finished wiping off the last of my blood, I heard footsteps nearby. I lifted my head and thanked my lucky stars when I saw Aragorn's horse coming around the corner. "Brego..." I whispered as the horse walked over to me. He let out a distressed whinny when he spotted Aragorn and I, and quickly made his way over to the ranger, stopping and bending down next to him, whinnying softly again and gently nuzzling his face.

Aragorn stirred, opening his eyes and sighing as he recognized his faithful steed. He whispered his thanks to the horse as Brego dropped to his knees beside him. Then he looked over at me. "Erin..."

Despite the burning pain at my hip, I smiled a bit. "Hey. You doing okay?"

He nodded a bit again, then groaned as he sat up, grabbing a fistful of Brego's black mane. "...We must go..."

"No...wait," I said, getting his attention. "We should at least try and clean ourselves up a bit." I handed him my dripping wet cloak. "...We won't be any use to anyone if our cuts get infected." Aragorn gratefully took it, and I watched silently as he cleaned off his arm and head as best as her could.

He was about to hand it to me again, but then frowned a bit. "Come here," he whispered. "Your back." I did so, and when I turned so that it faced him, I could almost see him cringing. "...There are many scrapes. This will hurt, but...I must clean them." He paused for a moment, as if waiting for my permission.

I sighed. "Go for it." I tensed considerably as he touched the cloth to my back. It felt like he was raking it up and down with a bunch of splintery wood, but I knew Aragorn was being as gentle as he could. I bit my lip again and closed my eyes, trying not to focus on the pain so much.

When he finally finished, I turned slightly towards him again. "Aragorn...do me a favor and pop my shoulder back into place. I think I...I dislocated it...or something..." He nodded and paused for a moment, resting. Eventually, he instructed me to lay down flat on my back. I did so, wincing as the stone touched my scrapes, and stayed still. As soon as I felt pressure on my shoulder, I cried out. It hurt like nothing I could describe, but I knew it had to be done. After about ten seconds of that agony, there was a _pop, _and Aragorn pulled away. "Thank you," I whispered, closing my eyes and not moving from where I lay on the ground. My shoulder still ached a bit, but I could tell that it was back in its proper socket again.

After about five minutes, I pushed myself up into a sitting position and glanced to my left. Aragorn was sleeping again. While I knew that we needed to head out soon, I was just as tired as he, and I knew it would be pointless to try and get both of us onto Brego's back without waking him up. So I carefully laid back down and flipped onto my stomach again, letting the deep comfort of sleep take over me once more.

**A/N: Oooh, now Kathryn knows about the love triangle. :3 What's she gonna do about it when Erin gets back? We'll see... Speaking of Erin, I hope I made her and Aragorn's injuries and stuff sound logical. XD I've never actually dislocated my shoulder, so I have no idea what that would feel like. I've actually never had any major surgeries or health problems at all, for that matter. Oh well. It had to be done for the fic! :D I hope you guys like this chapter! Please review, and you get a free cookie! :)**

**(Next chapter will also probably be uploaded today, by the way!)**


	13. Woo! They're Back!

Staying Strong: Chapter Thirteen

Kathryn's POV

It had been two days since Erin and Aragorn had died. Our little clan of friends was slowly starting to try and get back into the swing of things, but...it was really obvious that it was hard to move on. I tried to keep myself distracted as much as I could. I figured that the more I thought about it, the harder it would be to deal with the loss.

At this particular moment, I was headed to a training session with Éowyn. The White Lady of Rohan had been more than happy to me my tutor when it came to sword fighting, and I was glad for it. I still had no clue when exactly this big battle was going to happen, but I wanted to be prepared for it either way. As I wove my way through the crowds of people that were casually milling about, I glanced down at my sword that was strapped to my hip. I was in my normal brown and gold traveling clothes, and had just gotten my hair trimmed again so that it just brushed my shoulders. After all, I didn't even want to think about the disasters of trying to fight in a dress.

When I emerged up onto the top level, I glanced up at the small raised area, sort of surprised to not see Legolas there. He'd kinda taken to being either there or in his room a lot lately. I felt so bad for him. Just like that, he'd lost the girl he'd loved. I bit my lip with worry, thinking about my own Middle-Earth Romeo. _I wonder if Faramir's doing okay...Heck, I wonder where he is, period. _I sighed and looked up as I stepped into the main complex that the royals and their guests were living in. _No use worrying about it now when I'm way over here._

"Kathryn!" I smiled as I saw Éowyn standing in the center of the large, open area of the throne room, dressed in the usual brown and blue gown she wore often. "I'm so glad you could come," she said as I approached her.

I laughed a bit. "Believe me, I could use the help."

Éowyn just shook her head. "Shall we begin?" I nodded, and we started off by going over several simple moves that I remember Aragorn showing me on our way to Helm's Deep a few days ago. I messed up on some of them, but did pretty good on the rest. Or at least, Éowyn seemed to think so. "Excellent! You remember those well." I nodded. "Now, watch my movements and copy them as best as you can."

_She's such a nice, patient trainer, _I noticed as we continued practicing that way for awhile. Aragorn had been patient, too, but he was a bit more forward and critical. Not in a bad way, though. _Okay Kathryn, focus. Stop thinking about Aragorn and look at __É__owyn. _I snapped out of my daydreaming just in time to catch the basics of the next move. _Step with your right foot, swing up, dodge to the side, blade down. Got it. _I executed the move that she'd just shown me, freezing at the last position with my blade pointed at the floor.

"Almost...there's just this one thing." Éowyn walked over and straightened out my arm so that it wasn't bent anymore. "You've got to be swift in your swinging, but always keep your arms straight. It will help your moves be stronger and have more force."

"Okay," I said, nodding. She showed me the next move, I repeated it, Éowyn corrected any errors...rinse and repeat. It went on like that for about another hour or so before Éowyn looked up at someone approaching us from behind.

"Oh! Hello, Legolas," she said, and I turned around, smiling at the blonde elf.

He nodded to her politely, then looked at me. "Am I interrupting?"

I shook my head and sheathed my weapon. "Not at all. Actually, I think I'm ready for a break at this point. Can I be back here in like...five minutes, Éowyn?"

She nodded. "Go ahead."

"Awesome." I looked back at Legolas. "So...what's up?" Together, we started walking towards the kitchens in the Keep. It was past noon, and I needed a snack.

"I wanted to ask you something. Had you ever seen Kaia at all before we arrived in Edoras?"

I frowned, remembering that Erin had told me about her going missing. "...No. I didn't even know she was here in Middle-Earth until Erin told me." Truth be told, I liked having Legolas around. He was the only other person that knew about Kaia and I being from another world.

He looked worried. "Oh. I thought you might know something."

I shook my head. "Nope. I am worried for her, though. Knowing Kaia, she's probably gotten herself into trouble." We reached the kitchens, and I slipped inside, grabbing a ripe red apple from a nearby table and then stepping back out with Legolas.

"Hopefully we can find her soon," he said. "I would hate for anything terrible to happen to her."

I took a bit of the apple. "Yeah." Realizing that it wasn't exactly polite to be eating in front of him, I looked back at the elf. "You want something?"

"No, thank you. I am fine."

"'Kay." I swallowed, then smiled at him. "You know, you're not all that bad...for an elf."

He smiled down at me, too. "And you are not so bad yourself, Kathryn."

I laughed a bit. "Thanks. Dude, Erin makes fun of me all the time for..." I trailed off, realizing my mistake. A long, awkward silence passed between us until I finally looked up at Legolas sadly. "...I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean-"

He just shook his head, but I could see that bringing it up hadn't done him any good. "It is fine. I understand."

I looked away, again letting silence fill the air for awhile as I awkwardly finished my apple. "...Do you want to come watch Éowyn and I practice? You could help, if you want to."

Legolas seemed to think about it for a moment, and at first I thought her was going to say no. But in the end, he nodded, seeming content with that idea. "I would love to."

"Cool." I tossed my apple core in a nearby trash can, and then the two of us started walking back out to the throne room, where Éowyn was waiting. She immediately started teaching me how to smoothly spin to dodge stuff while in battle, and I got the hang of it fairly quickly. Legolas just stood by and watched at first, but after awhile he also picked up a spare sword laying nearby and joined in. It was actually pretty fun, with the three of us helping each other out. I soon got all caught up in getting these slightly more complicated moves down, and before I knew it, it was soon about four in the afternoon.

I stepped out of the last move we'd gone over and exhaled. Both Éowyn and Legolas nodded approvingly at me before the former stepped forward to get to the next move. "Now," she began, "for this, you'll need to hold the sword in your dominant hand." I switched to right grip. "The move itself is simple, but keeping good form is the hardest part." I watched as she took two steps forward, thrusting her sword up twice in a blocking move as she did so. "You want to drive your opponent back a bit, and then..." Out of nowhere, she quickly spun to the left and swiped her sword clean through the air. If an Orc had been standing there, it would've gotten cut right through the middle. "Attack without warning, when your enemy is expecting another defensive move." She spun around to face me again. "Now you try."

"Remember your footwork," Legolas cut in as I started. I went through the move like I thought I'd seen Éowyn do. When I stopped, holding the last position, the elf shook his head. "Not quite." He stepped up next to me, imitating the same pose. "Put your left foot out a bit more, and keep your shoulders squared back." I did that, and he nodded. "Now try it again."

Apparently, this move in particular was a lot harder than it looked, because even after about six or seven tries, I still couldn't quite get it down. When I went to focus on keeping my shoulders back, I didn't swing my sword properly, and when I tried to remember to swing my sword properly, my stance was off at the start. It seemed to get more and more confusing as we went on, and finally I groaned in frustration. "Can we just skip to the next move? Please?" I gave them my best puppy dog face.

Éowyn laughed, and Legolas just smiled, shaking his head. "One more time, Kathryn. You almost have it."

I sighed, but stepped back and got into the starting position again. As I proceeded with the move, I went over their reminders in my head. _Step, block, step, right block, keep you grip strong, spin to the left, slice, and foot out! _I froze in the final position, waiting.

After a moment, Éowyn came up next to me. "That was so close to being perfect, Kathryn! The only thing this time was that your sword isn't level." She gently pushed my arm up a little higher. "There. That's exactly it."

Legolas also walked over to me, sword in hand. "You did well," he said with a nod.

"Thanks." I grinned at them. "Hopefully it wasn't just a lucky try. Should I-" All attention was drawn to the Keep's main doorway as they opened with a loud groan, hitting the walls with a bang. I turned around to see what Legolas and Éowyn were staring at, and my jaw almost hit the floor.

There stood Aragorn, alive and breathing, right in front of us. Granted, he looked pretty beaten up, but he was _alive. _Just that was enough to make me shout "OH MY GOD! You're not dead!"

He smiled a bit at this. "No, I am not, and thank the Valar for that." His expression suddenly turned grim, and he was about to say something else when there was a loud clattering from directly behind me. I glanced back just as Legolas ran right past me, dropping his sword. He went directly to Aragorn, said something in elvish, and clapped a hand on his shoulder as he handed the Evenstar back to him once he pulled it out of his pocket. I smiled to myself, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Éowyn's grin slowly slide off her face.

Legolas said something else to the ranger, who nodded, and then the elf bolted for the doors. I frowned for a second. _What the heck is he- _I suddenly realized who he was going after, and quickly followed after him, running up to the huge doors just as he slipped through them. I grabbed the handle right as it was about to shut on me, pausing only when I heard Éowyn cry out "Kathryn? What's going on?"

I looked at her over my shoulder, my eyes wide with excitement. "Isn't it obvious? Erin's back!"

oOo

Erin's POV

I smiled as I bent down to hug the short little man. "Oh, Gimli..." I laughed.

"That's twice now that you've almost gone and died on me, lass! You need to quit with all this trickery!" He squeezed me into one of his bear hugs, and my smile only grew.

"I'm sorry, man. I really am. But to be honest, I hadn't planned to take that little detour."

He finally released me, his small eyes twinkling. "Well I'm glad you're back, Erin. Now go, get out of here! You've got plenty of other people to see, I'm sure."

I smiled, thinking of two people in particular. "Yeah, I do. See ya, Gimli." I gave him one last pat on the shoulder before walking off, squeezing through the crowd of people that had gathered when Aragorn and I had ridden in. He had already left to speak with Théoden, taking Brego with him, so I was free to walk around as I pleased. As I moved through the Rohirrim and made my way to the upper levels, several random people stopped me and smiled, welcoming me back. I returned the smiles politely, but almost wished that there weren't so many of them. It took me longer than I wanted to get to the second level. _They're just being nice, though. I can live with that._

I came up to the top of the steps, and was about halfway across the stone terrace, aiming for the Keep's throne room, when I heard my name. "Erin!" I stopped walking and spun around, my eyes scanning the thin crowd of people for the source of that voice. A second later, it ran up to me, and before I knew it was was being picked off of my feet and spun around in a hug, laughing.

When I was finally on my feet again, I stepped back, beaming as I looked up into the blue eyes of him that I knew so well. "Legolas!"

He looked so incredibly overjoyed to see me, putting both hands on my shoulders, smiling in disbelief. "You...you are alive! But...how?"

"What can I say? I'm lucky," I replied, earning a chuckle from him as he looked me up and down.

When he spoke again, his voice was softer, and he looked up at me with genuine concern written all over his face. "I thought I had lost you," he said quietly. "I was so worried...I-"

I cut him off by placing a finger on his lips before he started rambling like I knew he would. "You don't have to worry about me anymore, Legolas. I'm fine."

Suddenly, there was another scream, but this one was a lot louder. "ERIN! OH MY GOD, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" The elf stepped aside just in time to let me get literally tackled by Kathryn as she jumped on me, arms wrapping around my neck and legs around my hips. "You suck, you know that? Do you have any idea how much you scared the shit outta me?"

I stumbled backwards several steps, laughing as I caught my balance. "Good to see you too, best friend."

She got off of me and stepped back, only to glomp me again a second later. "Oh my gosh! You're alive! And you're here! And you...you're not dead!" We both laughed. "I can't believe you're okay!"

I smiled as she let me go again, standing next to Legolas, who was also smiling brightly. "You guys...I missed you so much. Both of you." I looked at Kathryn, then back at Legolas before all three of us did a group hug, laughing and smiling at each other.

When we finally split up from that, Legolas looked me over again, the smile fading, but only a tiny bit. "You are hurt," he said.

I shrugged. "Well, falling off of a cliff can do that to you." We all chuckled again, and I shook my head. "Nah, just kidding. I'm alright. Sore, but alright." I suddenly remembered something, and looked at Legolas with a worried expression. "Did you find my necklace? I didn't have it when I woke up in the river."

At this, the happiness in Legolas' eyes faded a tiny bit more. I frowned a bit, but he just nodded, and I dismissed it as nothing. "Yes, I do. I found it just after battle." He motioned for me to follow him. "Come. It is in my room."

"Gee guys, thanks for inviting me." I laughed and looked at Kathryn, who just rolled her eyes. "No, it's seriously okay. You two go ahead, I'm gonna go back to Éowyn." She waved before slipping off, and Legolas led me through the still-present crowd of Rohirrim, leading me up into the Keep through a side door. Before long, we were inside the king's halls, and Legolas broke the silence.

"Erin...forgive me. I swore to protect you in battle...and I failed you."

I shot him a 'seriously?' look, but then dropped the expression when I saw that he was seriously freaked out about this. "Legolas, you know that it wasn't your fault." We stopped walking in the middle of a hallway, and I put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to apologize for anything. It was by pure accident that the Warg ran into me and I fell."

"But perhaps if I had been there with you-"

"But nothing," I said, interrupting him. "It wasn't your fault. Now please...just let it go."

He looked at me for a moment, something in his expression that I couldn't read, then exhaled and nodded, opening the door we'd stopped at. Apparently this was his room. We both stepped inside, and I looked around. It was very organized and well-kept, just as I expected Legolas' room to be. I saw his cloak, weapons, and other personal things neatly folded and stacked on a table in the small, one-person room, and the bed was neatly made. You could hardly even tell that it had already been slept in.

Legolas walked over to the nightstand beside his bed and picked something up. He looked at it for a moment, pausing before extending his hand and letting it dangle. Relief flooded over me as I saw my beloved necklace, on a brand-new silver chain, suspended in midair. I quickly took it for him, sighing contentedly as I looped it over my head. I smiled to myself as I looked at it, the charm resting against my ribcage. Looking up at my best friend, my smile grew. "Thank you, Legolas," I said. He smiled back, and I continued. "Haldir will be happy to see it safe."

He just nodded. "...I would have kept it safe for an eternity, whether I knew you would return or not," he said softly.

I leaned in and hugged him. "You're so awesome," I said. "I owe you so much."

"You owe me nothing, Erin," Legolas replied, his voice close to my ear. "It was my pleasure to keep it for you. Really."

I laughed a bit, pulling out of the hug. I was about to say something else, when suddenly I remembered the reason that Aragorn and I had so urgently ridden here. "Come on," I said, getting serious again as I headed for the door. "We've gotta get to the throne room and start getting ready once Théoden gives orders."

"Orders?" I turned around from where I paused in the doorway. Legolas was confused. "For what? Why must we start getting ready?"

I hesitated, unsure how to break the news to him, then decided to be blunt. "War is coming." Without waiting another second, I continued out of his room and headed down the hallway, hearing him close the door and follow. "And it's coming faster than I want it to," I mumbled.


	14. Countdown to War

Staying Strong: Chapter Fourteen

Kaia's POV

I sat in my cell in the depths of Orthanc with my back pressed up against the wall, quietly singing to myself as I pounded my fist against the stone floor to the beat. "You were my conscience...so solid, now you're like water." Back home, I always felt awkward trying to match Hayley's gorgeous soprano with my deep alto voice, but now I didn't care. No one could hear me but myself. "And we started drowning...Not like we'd sink any farther...but I let my heart go...It's somewhere down at the bottom...But I'll get a new one...and come back for the hope that you've stolen."

I'd meant to go through with my escape plan days ago, but something way in the back of my mind told me to wait. I didn't know why, but every time I considered going through with my plan and busting out of here...it just...it didn't feel like the time was right. I got a little louder as I sung the chorus. "I'll stop the whole world...I'll stop the whole world from turning into a monster, eating us alive! Don't you ever wonder...how we survived? Well now that you're gone, the world is ours..." I nodded my head in time as I sang.

Lately, I'd been thinking about what I'd seen in Galadriel's mirror again. It bothered me that I already knew my fate, but...I guess it just had to be done. I don't know. "I'm only human...I've got a skeleton in me...but I'm not the villain...despite what you're always preaching." I vaguely wondered if things were going as they should be over where Erin was...if she was still alive, that is. I shuddered as I remembered the image I'd seen in Saruman's giant glass stone of her lying dead on the ground. "Call me a traitor...I'm just collecting your victims...and they're getting stronger...I hear them calling...calling...calling!" _Was any of that true? Did it actually happen? _I thought about how Saruman had just released his huge-ass army of Uruk-Hai to go attack the people of Rohan several days ago. _Dear God...please let them survive, wherever they are._

"I'll stop the whole world...I'll stop the whole world from turning into a monster, eating us alive! Don't you ever wonder...how we survived? Well now that you're gone, the world...is ours!" As I sang the chorus a second time, it actually made me feel pretty helpless. I realized that basically the entire story was going along without me...and I didn't even know if things were going well or not. I never would. Not as long as I was locked up inside this place. More than anything, I wanted to go find my friends and warn them of the dangers to come. I wanted to help them. But...I couldn't. Not from in here. I wanted out, but something was holding me back. I was waiting for the right moment, and it was killing me.

"Well, you find your strength in solutions, but I like the tension, and not always knowing the answers...but you're gonna lose it. You're gonna lose it!" I felt horrible. Everyone else was out in the open world, probably fighting for their lives, and where was I? I was just sitting here, in this stupid cell, doing nothing. Just this once, I felt like I had it better off compared to the others. "I'll stop the whole world! I'll stop the whole world from turning into a monster! Eating us alive! Don't you ever wonder...how we survived? Well now that you're gone, the world...I'll stop the whole world! I'll stop the whole world from turning into a monster! Eating us alive! Don't you ever wonder how we survived? Well now that you're gone...the world...is ours..."

I trailed off at the end of the song, losing the power in my voice. It was silent in my cell for awhile as I sat there, thinking about everything. After a few seconds, I pulled my knees up to my chest and lowered my head, trying to hold myself together.

For the first time ever, singing had made me feel worse that what I'd been before.

oOo

Erin's POV

I walked into the throne room just as Aragorn was giving Théoden the description of what we'd seen on our way to Helm's Deep. "A great host set forth from Isengard," said the ranger, "one that moves swiftly without rest."

"A great host, you say?" Théoden repeated. "...How many?"

"Ten thousand strong, at least."

At this, the king turned around, panic evident in his eyes. I smirked. _Not so cocky about your little fort now, are you? _"Ten thousand?" he breathed.

Aragorn nodded. "It is an army bred for a single purpose. To destroy the world of men. They will be here by nightfall."

Théoden was about to turn away when I spoke up, moving casually across the floor to stand with Aragorn. "We have seen them before. They are the Uruk-Hai. They attacked our small fellowship a few months ago." When Théoden turned to acknowledge my presence, I locked eyes with him, my expression serious. "You'd do well not to underestimate them."

He held my gaze for a second, thinking, brow creased with worry. After a few seconds of silence, his gaze finally hardened, and it took all I had not to roll my eyes and groan at his next statement. "Let them come!" he spat, turning and walking swiftly away. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and I followed him, along with a few of his advisors and other important people.

As we walked around the great stone fortress, Théoden continued his stupid ramblings. I didn't pay any attention to them. I just mindlessly followed the rest of them around as I remembered the big decision I was going to have to make in a bit. Would I let Haldir live or die? _I can't let him die...but...I don't want to risk messing with the plot even more than I already have..._I was momentarily jolted out of my thoughts as I bumped into a passing soldier. "Sorry," I mumbled, then picked up the pace a bit to stick with the rest of the group as Théoden finally stopped us just outside of the main gate.

"Within these walls...we will outlast them," he said, the pride radiating off of him.

"This is no rabble of mindless Orcs!" Gimli suddenly spoke up as he leaned on his axe. "These are Uruk-Hai. Their armor is thick, and their shields broad."

I scowled again as Théoden responded to the dwarf's warning. "I have fought many wars, Master Dwarf. I know how to defend my own people."

"Which is clearly seen by the fact that you ran away from this fight to begin with," I said quietly. Legolas heard me and shot me a 'shut up Erin' glance, but I ignored him. Speaking up louder so that Théoden could hear me better, I continued. "Why are you so above taking our advice?"

The king turned to face me, anger flashing in his eyes at my bold question. "Erin..." Aragorn warned, putting a hand on my arm, but I went on.

"Have you personally ever been in a one on one battle with an Uruk that's taller and stronger than you? Have you ever had to defend yourself against at least a hundred of those things while on a hill in the middle of nowhere? No! No, you haven't!" I didn't say it in a rude way, I was just pointing out the obvious. Gesturing to the rest of the original Fellowship members, I said "We've been there before. We know how to strategize against the Uruks. If you'd at least just listen to-"

"Would you like me to hand over all control over these men to you, Lady Erin?" Théoden suddenly interrupted. "Perhaps I should just let your little group run this country."

I glared at him. "I never asked for that. I'm just saying that it wouldn't hurt you to ask others for help." At this point, I'd had enough. Not wanting to stick around this arrogant guy anymore, I walked past him, disappearing back into Helm's Deep and searching for a healer that could get me cleaned up a bit. I still hadn't ever really gotten my injuries looked at.

Just as I came to the doors of where I was told by a very nice old lady that the healers would be, I felt a hand firmly grip my shoulder. "Erin."

I spun around and looked up at Legolas, still kinda ticked from my conversation with Théoden a few minutes ago. "What now?"

"Why do you show no respect to King Théoden?" He wasn't scolding me, he was just curious.

"Because he's an idiot," I replied. "He always assumes that he's going to win, even when it's pretty obvious that he's not. Seriously! Three hundred...against ten thousand? What kind of drug is he on that makes him think he'll come out on top?"

Legolas' expression suddenly changed, and he glanced away, then looked up at me again with worry. "...Is that truly all we have? Three hundred?"

"At this point, yes," I said, sighing. I wish I could've told him about the elves coming to help, but I couldn't give anything away. "And besides, it's not like Théoden is my king, anyway. I owe him nothing." Bitterness crept back into my tone a bit.

Legolas was quiet for awhile. "...We are not going to make it through this, are we?"

_I wish I could tell you, man. I really do. _Instead, I gently clasped his shoulder and said nothing, giving him an apologetic look before turning and ducking inside the healing house.

oOo

Kathryn's POV

"All women and children to the caves!"

I looked up from where I'd been previously staring at the ground, confused. "To the caves?" I looked over at Éowyn, who sat next to me on a bench. "What does that mean? What caves?"

She looked kinda ticked off. "The caves back inside the mountain and under the Keep," she said.

"Is that bad?"

She looked over at me. "Do you not wish to fight with the men? I thought that is why you had asked me to train you."

I blinked, thinking about that. _Oh yeah..._ "Well...do I really have to? I mean, Erin's back now. If I know her, she'll be out on the front lines no matter what."

"Why is she allowed to go to battle, but not the rest of us?" Éowyn asked. "That is hardly fair."

I shrugged. "Erin's got lots of experience, I guess. I don't know."

"I heard my name?" We both looked up to see the woman who was the topic of our conversation walk over, eyebrows raised. "What's up?"

"We were just wondering if you were gonna fight," I said.

She smirked. "Of course I am! You think I'd willingly go into those caves down there? They'd have to knock me out in order to get me down there. And even then, I'd bust out of there and get into the fight faster than you could blink."

I laughed a bit. "I don't doubt that."

"What about you guys? Are you fighting?"

Éowyn was semi-glaring at the ground. "Apparently not," she said. "As a lady of the house, that somehow makes me too fragile to be in battle." She glanced up at Erin. "I am surprised my uncle has not confronted you about the matter already."

She scoffed. "He knows I wouldn't listen to him anyway, I'm sure. What about you, Kathryn? You coming?"

I bit my lip. "I...I don't really want to."

Erin blinked, confused by my answer. "What? You're serious?" I nodded. "...Oh. Well...okay. I guess I'll, uhh...see you guys later, then." I nodded, and she walked off. I felt bad for staying behind again, but...I just couldn't get over the fact that I might die if I went out there. _I'll never understand how she goes out there and kills stuff like it's no big deal. _

Éowyn suddenly stood from the bench, an idea striking her. "Perhaps if I could convince Lord Aragorn to let me fight...then my uncle would listen. Farewell for now, Kathryn." Before I could even say anything, she was gone too. I watched as she disappeared into the crowd and sighed. _Why can't I ever be that brave? I want to help defend my friends, but...I just can't. I can't do it. _I rose from my seat and started following the other women and children down into the caves...into safety. I'd feel absolutely horrible if one of my friends died while I just sat back and hid from the danger like a coward_, _but I feared my own death too much to do anything about it. _Faramir would be ashamed._

"God help me," I said quietly as I fell in line with all the others. All I could do at this point was just go with everyone else and hope for the best. _I really, __really__ hope that's enough._

oOo

Erin's POV

I was sitting on my bed in the room that I shared with Kathryn, going through and making sure that all of my weapons were cleaned and ready for use. Once I had finished counting through all my arrows and making sure none of them were broken, I set my quiver aside and picked up my smooth wooden bow. I stared at it for a moment, running my fingers along the twisted silver design that it had. I couldn't stop thinking about the arrival of Haldir and the others. It made me happy knowing that I'd finally get to see him again, but at the same time...it terrified me that I would either save or end his life. I had so much control over him...and I didn't want it.

Sighing, I decided to cut my hair so that it didn't get in the way during the fight. I stood up and pulled it out of its ponytail, walking into the bathroom and grabbing my knife along the way, Currently my hair reached all the way down to the middle of my back. _Too long, _I thought as I grabbed a bunch of it and slowly started cutting through the thick brown mess until it was much shorter, now only coming to just past my shoulders. I pulled it back as best as I could into a low ponytail again and tossed the fistful of hair that I was holding in the trash.

I'll be totally honest. I was scared about this fight. Not just because of Haldir and all, but because...there would be so _many _of them for us to fight. It hit me right then that there was a huge possibility that I might die tonight. Normally I wasn't afraid of my own death, I feared more for other people's lives , but this...It was scary, thinking that I could be brutally slaughtered in tonight's chaos. Especially since I still had no idea where Kaia was, and Kathryn would be expecting me to come back after it was all over.

_Kaia. _The slight frown on my face deepened when I thought of her. I still hadn't the slightest idea where the heck she could possibly be. _Is she even still alive? _I immediately pushed the thought out of my head. _No. Now's not the time to be thinking about that kind of stuff. You've got a battle right in front of you. If anything...you should be fighting for her, not freaking out about her. _I straightened and quickly walked out of the bathroom, strapping on all my weapons correctly and continuing on out into the hallway.

The first place I stopped was the kitchen to grab what could very well be my last meal (which was delicious, by the way). After I'd quickly wolfed down the food, I decided to go find Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. I really didn't have anything else to do in order to prepare myself now. My wounds had already been looked at, and the healers had assured me that the scrapes on my leg and back were nothing to stress over. The gash in my hip was a bit more serious, but still nothing big enough that could prevent me from fighting.

I was headed straight for the armory, where I figured they would all be. Just as I was about to open the door, it was flung open for me, and I was shocked to see a very stressed-looking Aragorn come storming out. "Woah! What happened to you?"

He looked at me, pausing for a moment to talk. "Please tell me that you too have not given up all hope." There was a deep sadness in his eyes, and I instantly realized what was wrong.

"Aragorn, you know I never would." I gave him a small smile. "It doesn't matter how high the odds are stacked against us, there's never any guarantee that we'll lose."

"Thank you," he said quietly.

"No problem." He moved on to go prepare himself for battle, and at first I started into the armory to go yell at Legolas for being a pessimist, but then I stopped, deciding against it. _They'll make up soon enough anyway. _

I turned and ran after Aragorn. "Hey! Aragorn! Wait up!" He stopped and turned around as I caught up to him. "Mind if I come with you? I've got nothing else to do."

He smiled a bit. "Of course not, Erin." The two of us didn't go very far, just over a few doors to the blacksmith. Aragorn slipped inside for a bit to sharpen his sword, and I sat outside on the steps, waiting. When he emerged a few minutes later, he plopped down next to me. "You are to fight with us, I assume?"

I nodded. "Yep. Not even Legolas could convince me to stay in the caves."

He chuckled a bit. "I do not doubt that you will defend yourself well, Erin. You're very brave for a woman."

"Thanks," I said. "I don't want to just sit back and watch it all happen while my friends risk their lives, you know? I want to help them."

Aragorn nodded, but didn't answer. We both sat there quietly for awhile, before he finally glanced up at a young boy that looked like he was in his teenage years. He was holding a sword, but was looking at it nervously, like he felt uncomfortable holding it. "Give me your sword," Aragorn commanded softly. The boy did so.

I looked over at him also. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Haleth, son of Hama." He hesitated for a moment, then spoke again, sounding terrified and sad. "The men are saying that we will not last through the night. They say that it is hopeless!"

I shot him a small smile. "Well, you should stop listening to those men, then. They're not doing you any good."

Aragorn stood suddenly and tested the sword out, swinging it around a bit before looking it up and down. "This is a good sword," he said, handing back to the boy. "Haleth, son of Hama...There is always hope." Haleth just looked at him and nodded, but I could see a spark of encouragement in his eyes as he nodded to us and then took off to go finished getting ready.

I stood up. "Aragorn," I said. He looked back at me. "You should get ready. It's already dark." This was true. The sun had set not long ago, and people were scurrying around in the dark, tying up any loose ends and taking care of other last-minute stuff before the battle began.

He nodded. "Come." The two of us headed downstairs to the lowest , and I followed him to a small storage room that was just below ground level. I stood off to the side, leaning against the wall inside the doorway as he threw on some chainmail and strapped his weapons on. _It's almost time. The battle is so close now...and I still have no idea what to do about Haldir. _I was on edge as I waited for the sound of the elvish horn. _I almost don't want them to show up now. _

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts about Haldir's fate that I jumped when Legolas silently slipped past me and into the room, walking over and handing Aragorn his sword. I also went over to them as the elf looked at his friend sincerely. "We have trusted you this far; you have not led us astray. Forgive me. I was wrong to despair."

I glanced over at Aragorn, who just smiled a tiny bit and clapped a hand on Legolas' shoulder. Blondie returned the gesture. "There is nothing to forgive, Legolas."

"Awww," I said, smiling at the happy reunion. They both just looked over at me and laughed.

At that moment, a very unprepared dwarf walked out from another room, grumbling to himself as he struggled with a giant mass of chainmail that he was wearing. "If I had time, I'd get this adjusted!" With a loud clattering noise, he let the suit of metal drop, and I laughed as the excess armor piled on the ground at his feet. He was way too short for it, and even Aragorn snickered a bit as he looked at his short, hairy friend. Gimli seriously did look like he was wearing some sort of metal ball gown.

He looked at each of us in turn, a bit embarrassed. "...It's a little tight across the chest."

I grinned. "I think it looks great on you."

Gimli was about to respond, when suddenly the loud sound of a horn being blown filled the air. Both Legolas and I immediately looked towards the open doorway, though with different expressions on our faces. "That is no Orc horn," he said excitedly, and before long the men had all bolted for the doorway, running up the staircase to greet our newest arrivals.

I exhaled and followed after them. "Here we go."

**A/N: Okay, I'm sorry for stalling with the Battle of Helm's Deep for so long! XD But I just realized that this story only has 14 chapters, and already we're pretty much at the end of the book. :P That just can't happen. So obviously, between the battle here and flipping back to Kaia, who's still in Orthanc, there will still be a few more chapters after this. I might add in a little bit of extra stuff in for after the battle. I don't really like the idea of just stopping a book right after a major fight. :I**

**Thank you in advance to those who review, and to those who haven't yet...What's holding you back? Go for it! ;)**


	15. Let the Battle Begin

**A/N: Hello again! :D Before we start this next chapter, I just wanted to ask you guys...Do you favor Erin/Haldir more or Erin/Legolas? Just curious. XD (You have no idea how weird it is to be asking you guys that about myself...:S) Answer in your reviews. :3 I want to know what you guys think! **

**ON WITH THE FIC! *da-da-daaaaaaa!***

Staying Strong: Chapter Fifteen

Erin's POV

As soon as my head poked over top of the last flight of stone stairs, all my worries disappeared. I legitimately _sprinted _up those last few steps and ran right up to Haldir as he finished talking to Théoden. "We came to honor that allegiance." I beamed. There he was, clad in shining silver armor and a deep red cape the suited him well. I reached him a split second later, pulling him into a huge bear hug.

"Haldir..." I whispered, grinning as he hugged me back. I pulled away for a second, and was met with a much-needed kiss. When he pulled away, I laid a hand on his chest and beamed up at him. "You were gone for way too long."

He chuckled. "Erin...I missed you so much." He kissed me again, which I eagerly returned.

After having our own little moment, I stepped to the side, letting Aragorn step up and hug him, too. _"Mae govannen, Haldir!" _(Well met, Haldir!) When they separated, Aragorn also had a smile on his face. "You are most welcome."

As Legolas walked up to greet the marchwarden, I glanced over at Théoden and nearly burst out laughing at the look on his face. It was priceless! He just kept looking from Haldir to the other elves to me to Aragorn...over and over and over again. It was hilarious.

All of a sudden, every elf standing behind their esteemed captain turned and faced them, their heads and bodies rotating with perfect synchronization. Legolas stepped off to Haldir's other side, and he looked over at me, a smile on his face at not being the only elf in the entire place anymore. I winked at him as Haldir said his line. "We are proud to fight alongside men once more."

Théoden said nothing at first, still bewildered by the random addition to his army. After a second, he nodded, and then privately spoke with Haldir for a moment about where his elven warriors could stand amidst the men of Rohan. Once that was done, Haldir turned and relayed orders to his elves, who quickly dispersed. Haldir stayed behind, turning to me as the elves filed past us, and slipped his hand in mine. "You have no idea how happy I am to be with you again," he said, smiling warmly down at me.

"Same to you," I said back. "It seems like it's been forever since Lórien."

"Thank the Valar you are still safe," he said. "I was worried you would not be here when we arrived."

I laughed a bit. "Oh, come on. You know I'm not that easily killed."

He nodded and smiled also. "This is true." His gaze then fell to the necklace he'd given me, which still hung proudly around my neck for all to see. "The necklace..." he said softly, picking it up and smiling again at me. "You kept it."

"Why wouldn't I?" I said. "It was a gift from you."

He dropped it and hugged me again. When he pulled away, I rested my forehead against his. "...You are fighting with us?" he asked a bit warily.

"Yes," I said, "and you'd better not try and turn me away now. I'm not leaving you out here on your own."

"I thought you might say something like that," he said with a small smile. He pulled away from me, still holding my hand. "Come. We should go to our places along the wall." I nodded and walked along with him, passing Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli as we went.

I glanced over at the blonde elf, who was looking at me curiously. "Hang on a sec," I said to Haldir, pulling my hand out of his momentarily. I ran back to my friend. "Something wrong?" I asked.

Legolas frowned a bit. "You are going with Haldir to fight, I assume?"

"Yeah," I said. Realizing what he was getting at, I smiled and nudged him with my elbow. "Hey, don't worry about me. I'll be okay. If you do want to find me, though, I'll be along the lower wall. Got it?"

He nodded, and looked at me seriously. "Stay with Haldir," he said, "and...good luck."

I nodded. "You too, Legolas. I'll find you after battle, just like always." I looked over at Aragorn and Gimli as well. "Be careful, you guys. All of you." With that, I ran back to Haldir, grabbing his hand as we set off to take our places. I had made up my mind about his fate now. I was going to save him. There was no way I was letting him out of my sight, not once through this whole thing. _If I last through it all, that is, _I thought, swallowing nervously.

oOo

Kathryn's POV

I sat next to Éowyn in the Glittering Caves, far away from anything that even resembled battle. I had been leaning back against a wall, watching my friend pace nervously for over half an hour now. "You know, if you keep that up you're gonna wear a hole in the ground."

She glanced over at me. "Forgive me, but I cannot help it. I want to be out there so badly, Kathryn..." She trailed off and continued pacing.

I sighed and tried to find something else to entertain me. We'd been down here for about two hours or so, and though I didn't want to be anywhere else at the moment, I was bored out of my mind. I hadn't thought to bring something to do while we were down here. I should've grabbed something, though. It would've distracted me from thinking too much and freaking myself out. We'd heard the sounds of a lot of people arriving at Helm's Deep earlier, but a few guards had dropped by and told us that an army of several hundred elves from Rivendell and Lothlórien had come to help fight. That had definitely made a lot of us girls and kids feel more comfortable about tonight, but it hadn't done much for me.

For the seventh time since I'd walked in here, I glanced at the cave entrance, which by now had been boarded shut. _Please be careful out there, Erin. I might've already lost Kaia...I don't need to lose you, too. _

oOo

Erin's POV

Haldir and I stood stone still up against the wall, silently looking out at the ravine before us, just like the rest of our elven friends. The beginnings of the Uruk-Hai army had appeared over the top of the hill just a few minutes ago, and already I was starting to grow nervous again. My right hand rested on the hilt of my elvish sword, but I reached out with my free hand and gripped one of Haldir's tightly. He glanced down at me in response, telling me not to worry with his eyes. "I will keep you safe," he whispered. I nodded, but bit the inside of my lip as I looked out to the approaching army. _It's not my safety that I'm worried about. _

It remained deadly quiet among the ranks of elves positioned along the wall. No one made a sound, and all I could do was wait for the Uruks to get close enough so that the battle would begin. It was tense. So, so tense. You could tell that everyone was worried, especially once the Uruk-Hai got close enough so that you could hear the stomping of their metal boots against the ground as they moved forward. I took a deep breath and swallowed, trying to calm down as the Uruks kept coming, their massive army slowly flowing into the valley before us like the tide washing up on a beach. I'd always loved this battle in the movies, but fighting in it myself was a totally different story. I tried to busy myself by counting the number of flickering torches I could see in the darkness of the night, but stopped after like, twenty something. I looked down the wall to my left for a minute, knowing that Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn were down there somewhere. _I hope they're all doing better than me._

oOo

Legolas' POV

I was tightly gripping the smooth wood of my bow, silently watching the oncoming horde of Uruk-Hai, when Gimli spoke up, grumbling from beside me. "You could've picked a better spot!" I did not even have to glance down to envision the tip of his helmet barely poking out over the top of the wall, bringing a small smile to my face for a fleeting moment.

Though I would never admit it, I was just as worried about this battle as the next person. Even with the extra help from the elves of Lothlórien and Rivendell, we were still hopelessly outnumbered. Despite my elven eyesight, I still could not see where the mass of black creatures ended. It was like they would never stop coming. _Ten thousand of them..._I sighed mentally. _Valar help us all._

A moment later I heard footsteps approaching from behind, and looked back to see that Aragorn was now standing just off to my left. "Well lad...whatever luck you live by, let's hope it lasts the night," Gimli said.

I turned to Aragorn, about to say something, when a loud clap of thunder and a flash of lightning from beyond drew my attention back to the battlefield. When it had subsided for the moment, I spoke, trying to sound confident. "Your friends are with you, Aragorn."

"...Let's hope they last the night," Gimli said quietly. As much as I hated to think negatively, a part of me could not help but agree with him. My eyes flicked down to the right, where I knew Erin was standing up against the wall also. I could just barely make out her figure in the darkness. A smile tugged at my lips when I noticed how she stuck out, being the only female and also the only one not wearing armor within Lórien's ranks. It was too dark to see her face, though. _If anything, at least let her come out of this unscathed. _

Aragorn moved on from his position next to us, and I turned to watch the Uruks again as they marched forward. The thunder rolled again, and a split second later the skies opened up, releasing a torrential downpour of rain onto us. _Wonderful. _The lightning and thunder continued on, and I simply stared straight ahead, waiting for the battle to begin.

oOo

Erin's POV

I swiped a lock of wet hair out of my face. _Does it really have to rain? Seriously? Mother Nature couldn't have held this off until tomorrow? _The Uruks finally stopped marching towards us once they were only a handful of yards away from the wall. I glanced over at their leader, who was now standing on top of a large rock that jutted out of the ground (Had that always been there? I never noticed it).

Aragorn's voice suddenly rang through the air, speaking to all of the elves. _"A eruch__î__n, __ú__-dano i faelas a hyn...an uben tanatha faelas!" _(Show them no mercy...for you shall receive none!)

Our two opposing sides stared each other down for awhile, no one moving a muscle. I glared harshly at the Uruks in front of me, trying to decide which one I wanted to kill first. I looked left again and spotted Aragorn a little farther down the wall from me, also scowling at his opponents. We waited for his command.

The lead Uruk roared loudly at that moment, signaling for all of his troops to start banging their spears against the ground and stomping, trying to intimidate us. That only fueled my hatred for them even more. I was still nervous, yeah, but now more than anything else I was annoyed. I didn't want to just sit here staring at them anymore, I wanted to kill them! They pounded on their chests ferociously, roaring and spitting insults at us in their harsh language.

Haldir pulled his hand out of mine, and I glanced over at him. He pulled out his bow, aiming and preparing to fire an arrow. I did the same. _Can we please just start already and get this over with?_

oOo

Kathryn's POV

As soon as the sounds of marching feet stopped from above us, many of the women sighed with relief, but I was still nervously glancing upwards at the ceiling. Éowyn had stopped pacing by now, and we were seated next to each other, saying nothing. It had fallen silent in the caves some time ago.

All of a sudden, the pounding came again, though this time is was louder and not as synchronized as before. It sounded like they were just stomping around up there. I shuddered as I heard the roars of the Uruks, even from down here. It was muffled, but still clear enough for us to be able to hear them yelling and screaming.

"Do you think we'll have the victory?" Éowyn asked, daring to speak up.

I looked at her seriously. "I don't know."

oOo

Erin's POV

I saw the first arrow accidentally fly through the air, nailing an Uruk right in the neck. _"Dartho!" _Aragorn shouted. (Hold!) But it was too late now. Everything just stopped. It was so silent, you could've heard a pin drop. Two seconds later, it was broken by the groan of the Uruk who'd been shot as he fell forward, dead before he even hit the ground. My heart raced as the other monsters started letting out roars of rage. _We've made them angry. No turning back now._ With a final roar from their leader, the army charged forward, and the battle began.

_"Tangado a chadad!" _(Prepare to fire!) I exhaled one last time as I withdrew my bow from where it had previously been strapped to my back, fitting a sleek white-feathered arrow to it and drawing it taut against my cheek. Rainwater dripped down my face and into my eyes, but I tried my best to focus anyway. We waited as the Uruks ran closer...and closer...

_"Leithio i phillin!" _(Fire the arrows!) I let mine fly, tensing a bit as I felt several other arrows fly right past my head. I smirked in satisfaction as I watched many of the Uruk-Hai fall, and wasted no time in shooting another, then another, then another! Arrows hailed down on the servants of Saruman as Aragorn gave the order for the archers standing behind us on the hillside to fire as well.

I shot another Uruk, nailing him in the neck, then shot the one right behind him. As we continued shooting, it seemed like we should've made a sizable dent in their numbers, but I glanced up for a second, frowning as I still saw an endless expanse of black covering the ground in the distance. There were still way too many of them.

Suddenly, I heard a scream, and watched in horror as an elf three rows down from me fell forwards off of the wall, a black arrow in his chest. The Uruks were firing back with crossbows. Thankfully, we were the better archers and had the advantage of being in a higher position than them, but the Uruk-Hai still managed to kill off several of our archers rather quickly.

My heart raced wildly as I continued shooting. _Any second now, an arrow could find its way up here and into my heart...and I could die. I'm on the front lines of battle. _I shot another down. _This is insanity. Why did I want to do this again? _Another one fell from one of my own arrows. That's when I glanced to the side and saw Haldir also killing off Uruks by shooting them. _Oh yeah. I've gotta save him. _

And then came the shout from Aragorn that I was dreading. _"Pendraith!" _(Ladders!) I glanced down to see that the Uruks had reached the base of the wall, and were beginning to push the first of the ladders up to lean against the wall so that they could climb over. None of the ladders connected with the wall near me, so I continued shooting down below, trying to stop the Uruk-Hai from even coming up the ladders in the first place. They stepped on a rung, I shot them to the ground. Simple.

After about five minutes of that, though, I heard the rough growling of one close by, and had just enough time to stop shooting and whip out my elvish blade before an Uruk sliced my stomach open. I greeted him with a stab in the gut, then took out another one that had been two steps behind them. Another Uruk came up to me, swinging an axe like a madman. He swiped at my feet, and I jumped over it, stepping up to him and hitting him in the neck with my blade.

"Erin!" I turned around to see Haldir calling for me. There were about three Uruks between us. _No! I can't get separated from him! _I killed off each one, stopping to catch my breath as I nodded to him.

"Sorry," I apologized as I sliced another Uruk across the chest. "I'll try to stick with you." He nodded, then turned and started fighting his own opponents. I kept an eye on him as I continued killing Uruk after Uruk. _He seriously is an insanely good fighter. _I watched as he killed off three Uruks at once, all in the same move. His timing and strength was incredible.

_Focus, Erin. Don't get distracted. _Still making sure he was nearby, I sidestepped to dodge a blow that one of the black monsters threw at me, then elbowed him in the side, stabbing him in the back as he stumbled. A second later, two Uruks ran up to me at once, one with a long, curved knife, and the other wielding a metal pole with a spiky ball on the end. I ran up to the one with the knife and clashed weapons with him once, then pushed him away from me and stabbed him directly in the face. Not missing a beat, I then turned around and swung my blade in a clean arc, beheading the other Uruk.

Haldir moved over to stand my one of the ladders, taking Uruks down as they climbed up, and I followed him. He sliced one in the arm as it jumped over him, then spun smoothly around and got another slash on the Uruk while it fell, killing it completely. I punched the next one that stuck its head over top of the stone wall, sending it tumbling backwards off the ladder and down to the ground below.

From behind me, I suddenly felt something grab my shoulder. A very strong something. As a reflex, I jabbed my elbow back into my attacker as hard as I could, but I came into contact with hard metal armor, not flesh as I'd expected. Pain shot up my forearms, and I mentally kicked myself for doing something so stupid. I felt the hot breath of an Uruk-Hai in my ear as it prepared to end my life, but it stopped and went limp just as it went to roar in my ear. As the body of the thing slid off my back, I turned and nodded to a nearby elf in thanks, who'd shot it in the back. He returned the nod, and we both went back to focusing on killing stuff.

After stabbing yet another Uruk-Hai directly in the heart, I paused for a split second, trying to figure out where everyone else was. Haldir was still right beside me, but where was Legolas and the others? _Maybe we should go try and find them. _Sensing something behind me, I turned quickly and clashed blades with a really tall Uruk. He pushed back, growling at me, and as he pushed harder, I suddenly took several steps back, leaving him leaning up against nothing. As soon as he hit the floor, I jumped on top of him and cut him on the back, right across one of his shoulder blades.

Catching my breath for a moment, I spun and ran back to the blonde marchwarden, who had also just sent another Uruk flying off of the wall. "Haldir!" He glanced over at me, but didn't stop fighting. I shoved another one of Saruman's creations out of my way as I ran to him. "I'm gonna go-" I stabbed another Uruk in the shoulder as it tried to sneak up on me."-find Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn! Come on!" He nodded, finished off one more of the Uruks nearby, and together we took off, running in the direction of the Keep.

oOo

Legolas' POV

"Seventeen! Eighteen! Nineteen! Twenty! Twenty-one! Twenty-two!..."

Had the situation not been so chaotic, I would have laughed at the dwarf's counting. He was perched atop the stone wall between two ladders, his axe cutting into every Uruk that dared to approach him. I was now fighting with my two twin white knives, slashing through both armor and flesh of the Uruks that came near. Just as I yanked my knife out of the face of one, watching him drop to the ground, I heard a very loud an unfriendly roar from behind me. Turning around, my eyes widened a bit as I saw what could very well be the biggest Uruk I had seen so far. It lumbered over to me, swinging a chain with several spikes on the end at me like a demonic whip of some sort. I jerked back once to dodge it, but the second time he swung it managed to scratch me lightly across the stomach. I hissed from the slight stinging pain, but instead of retreating, used this as energy to leap at my attacker, my knives viciously swiping through the air. I hit him in the chest once...twice...three times before he fell.

However, just as that Uruk died, another one with huge, bulging muscles stepped up to take its place. I twirled my knives in my hands, taking up a fighting stance, then charged straight at him, spinning to the side at the last moment and slashing down, feeling one of my knives cut into his flesh. When I stepped away, the beast growled in pain, but I frowned when I saw that I had done little damage to him. This time, the Uruk came to attack me, thrusting a slightly crooked, rusty sword at my face. I crossed my two knives and shoved them upwards just in time, catching the blade and holding it just an inch or two away from my face.

The Uruk roared in fury and pushed against me harder, trying to outmatch me in strength. I pushed back as hard as I could, but knew that I could not hold it up much longer. I heard Aragorn shouting for me, telling me to do something, but I could not move. If I did, my blades would slip, and I would be killed instantly. My arms shook slightly as I tried to push the blade away. I was almost out of strength. At that moment, I heard a very familiar feminine voice shout for Haldir, and then a second later the Uruk was shoved away from me. The sudden release of the weight from my arms caused me to stumbled forward a bit, and once I regained my footing, I quickly looked around. Haldir was standing on top of the wall, shooting down at something just below us, and several feet away, Erin was now attempting to take on the enormous Uruk that had just tried to stab me.

I panicked a bit as she sheathed her own blade and whipped out Kaia's black ones. The thing was at least a foot taller than her! What was she thinking? Just as the Uruk swung directly at her head, she ducked, lashing out with the two black blades and catching it in the ankles. Unfortunately for her, this caused her opponent to fall forward, directly on to her back. She was instantly smashed to the stone floor. "Erin!" I shouted, running over and kicking the giant Uruk off of her body. She rolled away and coughed, trying to get her breath back, and as the Uruk-Hai tried to get back up, I shoved it down to the ground again with my foot, shoving both of my blades deep into its chest.

Once it was finally dead, I turned and helped Erin up, grabbing her hand tightly. She looked a bit winded, but other than that appeared to be fine. "Why are you here?" I asked.

"I wanted to help," she said simply. Suddenly, she noticed Haldir, still shooting to something down below. When she looked back at me, there was panic in her green eyes. "Legolas! We've got to get out of here! Come on!" She grabbed my shoulder, trying to pull me towards Haldir so that the three of us could leave the area together.

I frowned, stopping her. "What? Why must we le-"

I was cut off my an explosion from right beneath our feet.


	16. Apparently Fighting Uruks Takes Awhile

Staying Strong: Chapter Sixteen

Kathryn's POV

The entire cave shook as a massive _BOOM _and rumbling sounded from right above our heads. Every head in the place looked up at the ceiling, eyes wide, until the rumbling subsided. Even then, people were panicking and freaking out over what had just happened. I was one of those people. "What in God's name was that?" I asked Éowyn, who was also looking around worriedly.

She didn't answer for a moment, but when she did, her voice was quiet and sort of fearful. "...An explosion..."

oOo

Erin's POV

I felt myself get literally thrown into the air as the stone beneath my feet shot upwards from the explosion of the bombs. Just as I went completely airborne, I managed to grab onto the back of Legolas' cloak, somehow managing to hang onto him as we flew through the air. Luckily, we hadn't been standing directly over the drain, but I still remember landing hard on my back, sending a jarring pain up my spine. My head hit the stone, and I slowly sat up as dust and other bits of stone hailed down around me, dizzily trying to shake it off and clear my head.

As soon as my world stopped spinning, I heard a groan. I looked down to see Legolas rolling over onto his back beside me, his eyes squeezed shut. "...What in the Valar...just happened?"

I reached over and touched his arm to let him know I was still there. "There's been an explosion. The Uruks have breached the wall."

His eyes shot open in fear. "What?"

I nodded. "Yeah. And we got flung off to the side. That's why I was telling you to get out of there." As Legolas also slowly got to his feet and recomposed himself, I looked around for Haldir. _He's gotta be around here somewhere...Is that him? No...that's just some random elf. _After completing a full scan of the area and finding no Haldir, fear settled on my heart, and I instantly jumped to my feet, looking at Legolas wide-eyed. "Legolas! Where's Haldir?"

He blinked, thinking. "I do not know. Where was he when the wall exploded?"

"He was trying to shoot the Uruks that were setting up the bombs down while you and I were fighting..." I tensed. "...And he was on the other side of the drain." Before Legolas could say a thing, I took off in a dead sprint towards the gap in the wall.

"ERIN!" I heard him shout from behind me. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"I HAVE TO FIND HIM! I CAN'T LET HIM GET HURT!" I shouted back, never stopping my run as I leapt over bodies that were strewn across the wall. I could see the gap through the thick, smoky air now. My heart pounded loudly in my ears. _I can't believe I'm gonna do this... _As I drew closer, I increased my speed. _It's go time. _I sucked in a breath and took a flying leap off of the edge of the broken stone, flying over the gap just as Aragorn commanded the elves to shoot at the Uruks who were charging inside. I sailed high over the arrows. "HALDIR!" I screamed, just barely clearing the huge gap and colliding with the smooth stone of the remainder of the wall. I rolled as soon as I hit the ground, my knees and forearms connecting with it first. I scraped myself up terribly, but I didn't care. _I have to find him._

I jumped to my feet, my momentum from my jump only slowing a little as I whipped out Kaia's swords and swung them wildly, never stopping my run as I tore through the area, slicing up Uruks like it was nothing. I tripped once or twice, but my will to find Haldir kept me going. _I've gotta find him. Oh Haldir, please, PLEASE tell me you're not already dead!_

oOo

Legolas' POV

"ERIN!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, but she didn't listen. I ran after her as she sprinted straight towards the gap, dodging and cutting down more Uruks as I went along. "ERIN! GET BACK HERE!" I heard her scream Haldir's name and watched in horror as she jumped just as she reached the edge of the gap in the wall, flying through the air and landing on the other side, pausing for a fraction of a second before continuing to run off in search of the marchwarden. _...I cannot believe she actually did that._

I had no more time to think about it, though. I skidded to a stop and looked down into the gap, watching as the Uruk-Hai started pouring through the hole and into the inner areas of Helm's Deep. I noticed Aragorn unconscious on the ground just in front of the Uruks, and was about to help him when I heard Gimli's shout from not far off.

"Aragorn!" He gave a battle cry as he too ran past me, jumping off of the wall and tackling several Uruks below.

I blinked. "Is everyone just going to start jumping from wall to wall, then?" I said aloud. Then I remembered that Erin was still over there somewhere...alone. _Not if I can help it. _I turned and killed an Uruk that had tried to sneak up behind me, grabbing his shield out of his hands in a moment of brilliance. I ran over to the stone staircase, now slick from all of the rain, and without a moment's hesitation, readied my bow as I threw it forward, jumping on top of it and keeping my balance as I slid down the stairs. I fired shot after shot as I went, hitting four Uruks in a row before lifting my feet just as I came to the bottom of the staircase, shoving it deep into another beast's chest and killing him off. I then whipped out my knives again and stabbed another in the face, kicking him away before jumping over top of another one that was picking himself off of the ground.

Quickly dodging several more Uruks that got in my way, I cut through the brawl between elves and Uruks that was taking place at the base of the wall, where the drain had previously been. Every chance I got, I looked up at the other side of the wall, hoping that I could get up there before something when horribly wrong.

oOo

Kaia's POV

"NO!" I screamed, lurching forward in the chair that I was tied down to yet again. I stared into what I now knew was called a palantír, watching in absolute horror as a section of the wall at Helm's Deep exploded. Erin, Legolas, and Aragorn were all sent flying from the blast, and the last thing I saw before the images faded away was Aragorn's unmoving form, lying in the dirt as the army of Uruk-Hai stormed towards him, weapons raised.

Saruman laughed cruelly as he threw the dark cloth back overtop of the smooth glass ball, preventing me from seeing any more. "Oh...you've lost your friends. How unfortunate." He laughed again, and my entire body tensed as I clenched my fists in anger, full-on screaming at him.

"YOU BASTARD!" I yelled, tears falling down my face. "YOU SICK MINDED ASSHOLE!" I struggled against my bonds, wanting nothing more than to break free from the chair and kill him with my own two hands, but it was useless. The ropes were too strong.

"Oh, come now," he said casually. "It really isn't that bad, Kaia. At least you know how their lives ended in the first place." He laughed again, which made my blood boil even more. "Grima! Take her back down to her cell."

The slimy man immediately obeyed, and I was quickly led out of the throne room, almost falling on my face as I was roughly ushered down the stairs. As soon as I was alone, I bawled. I had just been forced to sit and watch Saruman's armies mercilessly attack my friends and their companions for almost two hours. It was horrible. All I saw was constant slaughter of innocent elves and men. Several times I'd even has to sit there and watch as kids, _kids, _who were never older than ten or eleven years old, try and fight with a sword that was taller than them, and end up dead on the ground with their fathers and grandfathers a few seconds later. It was horrible. It was the worst kind of torture that I'd ever had to sit through in all my days spent here in Orthanc combined...because the entire time, I had been able to do nothing. _Nothing at all. _I should've been there with the rest of them. I should've been out there fighting instead of all those innocent little kids that had gotten brutally murdered. I should've been the one sacrificing it all to protect all of Rohan's people...instead of my friends giving up their lives for that purpose.

After sitting and crying for my friend's sacrifices for about twenty minutes or so, I finally sat up straight, wiping the last of my tears away, though my body still shuddered every now and again with silent, unheard sobs. _That's it. I'm not gonna sit here and do nothing anymore. At first light tomorrow...at dawn...I'm getting out of here. _I slowly withdrew my knife, my precious, single knife that I had, from my boot. I stared at it for a minute, then slowly replaced it, making sure I still had my leaf pin from Lórien to pick my lock with. Once I was sure that everything for my plan was in order, I laid don on the floor and sat there, staring at the ceiling and thinking of the horrible battle I'd just had to witness until I fell asleep.

oOo

Erin's POV

"Pull back to the Keep!"

_"Nan Berad! Nan Berad!" _(To the Keep! To the Keep!)

"Get out of there!"

"To the Keep!"

Everyone seemed to be shouting the same thing and running in the opposite direction as me, but I didn't care. Haldir's death scene was supposed to happen in a matter a minutes, and I still hadn't found him. I pushed against the flow of elves running to safety, not caring about killing Uruk-Hai anymore. Now I was just trying to dodge them and move as fast as I could. _Oh gosh...If I'm too late..._

_ "Haldir! Nan Berad!" _(Haldir! To the Keep!)

I looked up as soon as I heard Aragorn shout, and finally spotted my beloved marchwarden standing only a few yards away, nodding as Aragorn told him to get out of there. He stopped fighting momentarily, motioning to the other elves to get off of the wall. "HALDIR!" I screamed, finally breaking out of the crowds. He turned around when he heard me, and just as he did, I saw an enormous Uruk lumbering up behind him, raising his axe.

I paled. "NO!" With all the energy I had left, I shot forward, shoving Haldir out of the way and sticking my sword straight into the Uruk's middle, impaling his body on the elvish blade. It made an odd gurgling noise for a minute, then dropped to the ground, dead.

I just stood there for a moment, breathing hard. _...I did it...I saved him..._I looked up at Haldir, a huge grin on my face. _He's alive! I did it! I really did it! He's okay! _I laughed, hugging him tightly.

"Erin...you saved my life," he said, shocked.

"Yeah...Yeah, I guess I did," I said, still beaming.

He pulled out of my embrace and looked into my eyes. _"Hannon le." _(Thank you.) He quickly leaned down and kissed me gently on the lips as a reward. I wanted to stay in that moment for longer, but we still had a battle to finish. Haldir abruptly looked up for a second, then down at me. "Come. We must hurry." I nodded, and he turned, leading the way back to the Keep..to safety.

We'd gotten to just about to the edge of where the gap in the wall was when I heard several low growls from behind me. I turned around, clenching my fists as I spotted three Uruks, all bigger and much more muscular than I stalking over to us, each with a cruel, curved black blade in their hand. I reached for my sword and whipped it out again just as Haldir stepped up beside me. "We got this," I said, grinning. He returned the smile, and our short scuffle on the wall began.

Haldir started off by taking on the one in the middle and the one on the right, while I chose what looked to be the weakest one; the one standing to the left. He lunged at me, and I blocked his blade, pushing him back as best as I could. Again the Uruk lashed out at me, and again I blocked, but he was driving me back. I could tell. I caught a glimpse of Haldir trying to fend off the other two, and wondered if I should try and ditch this guy to go help him.

As soon as I looked away, though, the Uruk I was fighting roared in fury, and before I knew it, he'd kicked my legs out from under me, sending me to the ground. I tried to get up, but he viciously drew his foot back and kicked me again, sending me sliding a few feet across the slick, wet rock. I cringed in pain as I felt the scrapes on my back start to burn again.

"Erin!" I looked up to see Haldir looking at me fearfully. He made to step towards me, but as soon as he was distracted by my fall, he too was on his back on the ground.

Now I was pissed off, too. "Don't you touch him!" I yelled, jumping back to my feet and stabbing the Uruk I'd been facing off with in the shoulder, sending him down. I jumped forward and sliced the next one's stomach clean open, causing it to spill all kinds of disgusting intestinal fluids onto the floor of the wall as it dropped to the ground. Just as I turned to attack the final Uruk-Hai that had attacked us, I looked down.

Haldir lay on the stone floor with the Uruk's dirty blade lodged in his chest.

Everything came to a screeching halt. I froze, not moving a muscle...almost afraid to breathe. It was silent for three seconds as I processed what was happening. I slowly lifted my gaze from Haldir to the Uruk standing over top of him. "You...just..." Right then, I snapped. I let out a scream of fury, running right into the Uruk-Hai and shoving him clear off of the wall. "No!" I shouted, turning back to Haldir even before I saw my enemy hit the ground. I dropped to my knees next to him. "No no no! Just...Haldir! Haldir, stay with me! Look at me, Haldir! LOOK AT ME!" I leaned him up against a large chunk of rock, cupping his face in my hands, crying hysterically. "HALDIR!"

He looked up at me, and I watched in horror as the life drained from his brown eyes. "...Erin..." He was gasping for breath. "I...I am so sorry..." He tilted his chin up a bit, as if to kiss me...but it never came.

I just stared at him for a moment as his brown eyes stared at nothing, glazed over. "NO!" I screamed, shaking him a bit. "NO! Haldir! Don't leave me! Please! Don't...you can't..." I trailed off into nothing. I stopped crying completely, just sitting there in shock, but with a tightness in my chest that made it feel hard to breathe.

It seemed like I sat there for an eternity before Aragorn also arrived on the scene, staring down at his dead friend in shock. "No..." he whispered. He placed a hand over his heart, then reached down to touch Haldir's as if to say farewell, head bowed.

I just sat there, still blankly staring at his dead body. _W...What? But...I...I thought I saved him...I thought he...I..._

Out of nowhere, I heard a strange voice in my head, speaking softly, but firmly. _"Some fates are not meant to be changed...but accepted." _Just like that, it was gone again.

I blinked, confused. The voice had definitely sounded feminine, but...it wasn't Galadriel. And it certainly wasn't any other voice I recognized. _...What...I don't understand...what's going on?  
_Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I flinched as I looked up at Aragorn, who pulled me to my feet. I kept staring at him, my mouth open a bit in shock. "Erin..."

"I...I tried to save him..." I said, looking back down at the fallen elven warrior.

He looked at me sadly. "I know. I am sorry, Erin, but we...we must move on. The battle has not yet been won."

"I...okay," I said slowly. Swallowing my emotions for another time, I picked up my sword again and ran off after Aragorn, not feeling brave enough to look back over my shoulder as we left the wall.

oOo

Legolas' POV

"Legolas!"

I snapped my head to the right, quickly finding the source of the voice as Aragorn. I ran up to him from where I stood, which was currently along the wall on the second level of the Keep. Erin was right behind him, I noticed, but she looked...troubled. "What is it?" I asked, my gaze flicking back and forth between the two of them.

Aragorn pushed Erin towards me again. "Stay with her." That was all he said before running back down into the lower levels, soon disappearing from sight.

I looked at Erin, frowning. "Is something wrong?" She did not answer right away. I looked around, just noticing that Haldir was not with her. "Where is Haldir?" I asked.

"He...he died," she said. She did not look at me directly. Instead, her eyes wandered around, her brow creased with worry.

I also frowned at her response. It was silent for a moment between the two of us. "...I am sorry," I said quietly. "He...he was an excellent warrior." Erin nodded, but said nothing more. It broke my heart to see her in such a way, and at that moment, I wanted nothing more than to simply sit down with her somewhere private and comfort her in her grief. Unfortunately, that could not be done just yet. I broke the short silence. "Erin."

She looked up at me, looking so...confused. She looked away again, back out towards the battlefield, and when she spoke, said something I did not expect. "...Shoot the ladders down."

I looked at her curiously. "What?"

"The ladders," she said, pointing. "There's more of them coming up against this wall. Shoot the string, and they'll fall right back down."

I nodded, about to take off, when I stopped and turned to face her, now concerned for her well-being. "Will you still fight?"

She hesitated for a minute, then sighed and ran a hand through her hair. When she looked up at me again, it seemed like she was back to normal...for the moment. "I don't really have any other choice now, do I?" Together, we walked over and started taking care of the three ladders that were being lifted up. I shot the string of one with an arrow, smiling a bit in satisfaction as it tipped backwards, the Uruks screeching in fear as they crushed several members of their own army. I glanced over at Erin, who had used her sword to do the same, sending two more ladders filled with Uruks back down where they belonged.

"It worked," I said, a bit surprised.

"Well yeah," she said, shooting me an odd look. "Did you expect any different?" I laughed a bit, but she did not, which caused me to fall silent a moment later.

I looked back out at the battlefield when I suddenly heard the clashing of swords and the cries of the Uruk-Hai. My muscles tensed when I saw two small figures just outside of the gate below us, taking on dozens of Uruk-Hai at a time as they came up the ram, wanting to break into the Keep. "Aragorn! Gimli!" I looked at Erin, a bit worried. "Erin, why are they down there?"

She glanced down and shrugged. "They're just doing their thing, Legolas."

"We must help them!" I urged, looking around frantically for something to help get them out of there. All of a sudden, I spotted it. A long, coiled up length of rope, lying on top of a nearby crate. I reached over and grabbed it, striding over to the wall. "ARAGORN!" I shouted, getting my friend's attention.

I felt a hand on my arm, and looked down to see Erin eying the rope skeptically. "Are you sure that'll be long enough?"

"It will have to suffice," I said, tossing it down to them. "Take the other end!" Erin nodded and immediately did so, securing it by tying it around a section of the wall that had somehow broken off into a large chunk of rock.

She then sat on top of it to ensure that it wouldn't come loose. "Can you pull them up by yourself?" she asked me.

I nodded. "I will be fine." I looked back down, happy to see that my two companions had grabbed onto the rope. With all the strength I had left, I gripped the rope firmly in both hands and started pulling. _One hand over the other...come on...you can do this..._

Apparently I misjudged how much both of them weighed once combined, because soon I felt strained from having to pull them up. My arms felt like they were going to give out...but if I dropped them..._No. I cannot drop them. _I exhaled and paused for a moment, then pulled again, ignoring how much my muscles burned. _Come on...almost...there..._

Thankfully, I saw Aragorn's dark hair pop up over top of the massive wall a few moments later, and I gripped his arm, pulling him and Gimli over the side as gently as I could. The two of them tumbled over the edge and onto the ground below, and Erin walked over, helping them up as I quickly pulled the rest of the rope so that no enemies could use it to get up over the wall. I felt a hand on my back, and turned to see Erin smiling at me a bit. "Good job, Legolas. I'm impressed." She turned back to Aragorn and Gimli, speaking with them for a moment before they ran off. She lingered behind to wait for me. "Come on! Aragorn says that the Uruk-Hai have broken through the gate!" I nodded, quickly readying my bow and following her as we raced down to the main level, ready to continue fighting.

**A/N: Well! I'm done for the night. XD Two chapters in less than five hours...HOLY. COW. I didn't want to stop in the middle of the battle, but...I have to now. It's almost 2 AM. I need sleep. XD Don't forget to review! ;3**


	17. A Miraculous Escape

**A/N: Hey guys! It's been awhile, no? Oh my word, I am SO sorry for being randomly offline for the past week, but I got into trouble over something stupid and lost my laptop for awhile. :I However! This hasn't stopped me from writing more of the fic, and I'm proud to say that not only did I finish the last two chapters of this book, I've started on the fourth and final one! :D it should be uploaded very soon! :3 Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

Staying Strong: Chapter Seventeen

Kaia's POV

My eyes snapped open, and I shot upright from where I'd been resting in my cell as the most inhumane roar I'd ever heard sounded loudly in the air. _What in God's name is that? _I scrambled over to the cell's door, listening as the odd guttural scream rang out for almost ten seconds. When it faded into silence, I stayed where I was, face pressed up against the cold metal bars. _Was that a signal or something? Seriously...what just happened? _After about half a minute of sitting, I relaxed and backed away a bit, still hopelessly freaked out. Had that been some sort of sign for Saruman? I prayed that nothing bad was going to happen just yet. _Let me escape with my life first, please._

Speaking of which...I looked over at the small slit of a window that was carved out of the black wall, right next to the staircase. The sky was covered in blue-grey clouds, with only a few patches of actual sky peeking through here and there. Still, it was more than light enough outside to be morning. _Time to go. _I unclasped my elvish cloak and used the leaf pin to pick the lock of my cell once more, grinning in satisfaction as it opened with a _click. _I made sure to replace my cloak around my shoulders again before leaving. Just as planned, I quietly swung the door open, slipped out of the cell, and grabbed my single broadsword, my confidence rising as I clipped it to my back. I pulled my spare knife out of my boot and headed for the stairway, pausing for a second to look outside through the window. When I did, my eyes bulged.

It looked like all hell had broken loose. There were weird-sounding cries of fury coming from these...these...these _things _that looked like moving trees. No joke! There were literally dozens of tree-people, varying in size, color, and shape. What scared me, though, was that it looked like they were invading Isengard! The tree-things were beating on the ring of black stone that served as a wall, and I watched in shock as they managed to almost completely destroy parts of it. Then they started picking up huge chunks of the black rock and hurling them across Saruman's stronghold, crushing several Orcs that were running around like headless chickens. The tree-people started marching into Isengard, tromping around and completely crushing Orcs that were about the size of their fingers by stepping on them. Seriously, these things were HUGE.

For a minute, I was a bit scared by these guys. Obviously they were way too big and strong for me to fight, and I didn't even know who's side they were on! They could be weird creatures created my Sauron, sent to punish Saruman for...not being wizard-y enough. I don't know! After I got past my initial 'wtf' reaction, though, I realized how this could work as an advantage for me. Amidst all the chaos, (if I was quick enough) I could slip out of here unnoticed and make a break for it. Once I realized this, I turned and started up the stairs, excited by the prospect of freedom.

However, my happiness was crushed as soon as I got about halfway up the steps. I stopped abruptly to prevent myself from crashing into Grima, who was coming down the same staircase. Neither of us said a word for a second as the grip I had on my knife increased. It was I who ended up breaking the silence. "If you so much as move a muscle...let alone scream...this knife will be embedded in your throat."

oOo

Kathryn's POV

There was another loud bang from near the caves' entrance, and I jumped, my pulse getting even faster. We'd just received the news a few minutes ago. All of our warriors were almost dead, and there were still tons of Uruk-Hai ready to fight outside. What was left of both the elves and the Rohirric men were trying their best to defend the last level of the Keep that hadn't gotten overtaken my the Uruks. "Éowyn..." I said fearfully, "...are we done for?"

She didn't respond, but I could see in her eyes that we were thinking the same thing. _We're all screwed. We've lost. It's over. _I leaned over and hugged her tightly, trying not to cry.

Another bang. "They're breaking in!" someone shouted. Cries of fear erupted throughout the caves, and I shut my eyes tight, shuddering. _This is it..._

oOo

Erin's POV

"More! We need more wood to barricade the door!"

"Here!" I cried, shoving another random bench that Legolas and I had picked up into a soldier's waiting arms. I turned and ran back to the elf, who had just lifted another board up. He passed it to me, and I in turn handed it off to someone else before stepping back a bit so that I was next to him. "Is that all we have?"

He nodded and drew his bow. "Yes. All we can do now is wait." I followed his lead and readied my own elvish blade, gripping it firmly in my hand and taking a battle stance.

Out of nowhere, I heard the king shout at us from behind in a depressed tone. "The fortress is taken! It is over!" I exhaled. _Way to be optimistic._

After Aragorn ran back to speak with Théoden, I glanced over at Legolas, who already had an arrow ready to fire. "You ready?"

"I suppose so. You?"

"Yeah," I replied, "I think so." I sighed, my heart sinking a bit. "If Haldir were here, he-" I stopped, at a loss for words.

Legolas seemed to understand my grief. After all, the two of them had been pretty close friends. He hesitated for a moment before saying anything. "If he were still here," he said quietly, smiling down at me a bit, "I believe he would be incredibly proud of you."

"I could've saved his life, though," I said. "I though I had it, but..." I shook my head. "I've done nothing that's worth being proud of."

"You may not have save Haldir, but here you are...willingly putting your own life at risk for the sake of others. In my eyes, that in something to be very proud of."

I looked up at Legolas, thinking. "And you...you're proud of me?"

He nodded. "Of course I am." I could tell he seriously meant it.

I smiled back the tiniest bit, but our conversation was quickly brought to and end as one of the guards behind us suddenly gave a shout. Everyone turned around to see that all of the horses that had previously been in the stables were now gathered together right in front of us. Legolas and I ran over, hopping onto our own respective horses and getting in line behind the king.

As I adjusted myself comfortably on top of Frania, I looked over at Legolas, who was now wielding a large Rohirric broadsword. "Change in strategy, I see."

He chuckled. "Let us hope that it works out in our favor."

I nodded, then turned my attention ahead of me as Théoden gave his little motivational speech. "Fell deeds awake...Now for wrath! Now for ruin, and a red dawn!" I tensed and tightened my grip on Frania's reins as the Uruks made their final blows on the door. The horn of Helm's Deep sounded loud and clear. "FORTH ÉORLINGAS!"

The low note of the horn filled us all with a burning determination as we rode forward with battle cries. The doorway flew open right as we reached it, and it satisfied me to see the Uruks shriek in fear as they dove to the sides, trying to save themselves from being trampled. We tore straight through Helm's Deep, leaving a trail of Uruk-Hai corpses in our wake. It didn't take long at all for us to reach the main gates, and we passed straight through those too, continuing on down the stone walkway and driving our enemies right off of it. I sliced and stabbed at pretty much any black thing that got in my way, not even trying to keep count of our progress anymore. I was fighting for more than just a desire to win now. I was avenging those I loved. Haldir, Kaia, Merry, Boromir...all who had suffered at the hands on the Uruk-Hai.

In the light of dawn, we finished cleaning off the main entryway and plunged into the rest of army's ranks. Being on horses gave us an awesome advantage, and I felt more courageous than ever as I help kill off the rest of the disgusting black creatures. After a few minutes of that, I spotted someone on top of the other side of the ravine...A lone rider on a dazzling horse, clothed all in white. "Gandalf," I whispered, smiling as Éomer rode up beside him as well.

As soon as the rest of the Rohirrim cavalry appeared behind him, the Uruks grunted in displeasure. One by one, they turned and faced their new enemies, sticking their sharp, jagged spears forwards to intimidate. Despite how nasty the Uruks may have looked, there was no hesitation at all in those men as Éomer shouted "TO THE KING!" They all charged forward, echoing their captain's shout as they rode at full speed down the hillside, ready to meet the Uruk-Hai head on.

Just as they came within reach of the foul creature's spears, the sun rose up over top of the hill behind them, slipping warm, brilliantly bright sunlight down into the valley below. The Uruks were instantly blinded, and they shrunk back, lifting their spears right before the Rohirrim collided with them. From that point on, Rohan easily won the battle. With the sudden addition of two thousand strong men to our side, we easily overpowered the remaining Uruk-Hai. I got right back into the fighting alongside everyone else, slaying the monsters quickly.

After a minute or so, the rest of the Uruks who somehow hadn't been slaughtered were smart enough to at least run away. They fled into the west, running in fear of being killed, but every last one of them ran right into a forest not far off that everyone knew hadn't been there before.

Éomer was the one who tried to warn them. "Stay out of the forest! Keep away from the trees!" Obviously, they didn't listen, and almost as soon as the last Uruk disappeared into the green and brown mass, panicked and pained wails rose up from under the forest canopy.

My eyes widened as I watched the tops of the trees move around, completely destroying the other Uruk-Hai. "Well, that's unfortunate."

oOo

Kaia's POV

Grima just stared at my dagger for a bit, and at first I thought that he'd just yell for Saruman anyway. I could handle taking out this guy, but a white wizard? Not so much. After a moment, though, his eyes met mine, and the fear in them was obvious. Never taking my gaze off of him, I moved carefully around him on the steps, always staying in a position where the knife's tip was a half in away from his flesh. Once I had safely made it around the slimy little man, I hesitated. Should I just run off? Would he follow me? In the end, I just decided to turn and run out.

I hadn't gotten two steps away when I felt his hand grab my cloak. Panicking, I whipped around, still holding my dagger, and cut him deeply across the gut. I paused for a second as his face contorted in pain, dark red blood spilling onto the steps. I watched warily as his hold on me went limp and his body dropped to the black stone below, lifeless. Still kind of shocked at the fact that I'd just unintentionally killed a man, I slowly backed up, then turned again and full-on sprinted up the rest of the steps.

I quietly opened the door to the throne room and stuck my head in, nearly screaming when I saw Saruman standing out on his balcony, watching helplessly as the tree-people destroyed his land. Without making a sound, I was able to slip right past him, as his back was to me. I practically flew down the last staircase, drawing my sword and killing off the two door guards before finally escaping the tower of Orthanc.

For a second, I just stood there blinking, standing perfectly still on the black steps and adjusting to the sunlight after being cooped up in that dark little hellhole for so long. I almost couldn't believe that I'd actually just freed myself. My head snapped to the left when I heard a bang, and I flinched a bit when I saw the tree-people throwing chunks of rock at Orthanc itself, trying to make it crumble. They were also completely tearing apart Saruman's precious machinery and tossing rubble into the many caves and pits in the ground. Some of the Orcs were fighting back, as they'd managed to catch one of the tree-people on fire, but it was still obvious that Saruman's cronies were no match for those freaks of nature.

Suddenly, a deep, rumbling voice caught my attention. "Break the dam! Release the river!" I looked to the source of the voice, and once again my eyes nearly popped out of my head. Standing almost right in front of me was one of the tree-people, and even from here I could see his golden eyes and big mossy beard. It wasn't him that surprised me, though. What surprised me was who I saw sitting on top of it.

"Pippin?" I said aloud at first, confused. Then my brain finally processed how lucky I was to have run into him. "Pippin!" I screamed, running up to the tree-guy. "Pippin, it's me! Kaia!"

The little ginger hobbit also looked down, "Kaia?" What're you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" I exclaimed. At that moment, I glanced behind me and saw the dam far above Isengard in the mountains completely collapse. With a roar, the water from the river beyond started gushing out through the gap, heading right towards us. "Hey! Do you mind if I hitch a ride?"

He shook his head. "Not at all!" Then he finally got the tree dude's attention. "Treebeard! Treebeard!"

_Oh, so he has a name. _Treebeard slowly looked up at the hobbit. "Yes, Master Peregrin?"

Pippin pointed at me. "This is Kaia! She's a friend of mine! Can she climb up here to escape the water?"

Treebeard slowly looked down at me, blinked once, and then spoke again. "I don't see why not." With that, he reached down and picked me up in his gnarly hand, lifting me high in the air before setting me down on a perch just behind Pip's head. The little guy looked at me, about to say something, but was cut off by both the roar of the approaching water and Treebeard shouting "Hold on, little ones!" I braced myself for impact, closing my eyes as the rapids raced over and slammed into Treebeard, spraying water all over me. Treebeard didn't even budge, though.

When that had passed, Pippin looked up at me with questioning eyes. "What happened to you, Kaia? Have you been here in Isengard all this time?"

I smiled a bit. _You have no idea..._ "I'll tell you later, okay? For now, let's just focus on destroying Isengard without dying."

**A/N: Real quick, I just wanted to apologize again. I know that this chapter's pretty short, but the reason is because I wrote this one (and the next few) by hand originally, then typed them all up. Handwritten, this was nine pages, but my handwriting's a lot bigger than the font size in Open Office, so...XD Yeah. Next will be the final chapter, which might even be a little shorter, but once we get into book four; "To Whatever End," the chapters should start going back to normal-ish length. :3 **

**Please review! It makes me smile :D**


	18. The Aftermath

Staying Strong: Chapter Eighteen

Kathryn's POV

"Erin Erin Erin Erin Erin Erin Erin oh my gosh we won!" I pushed my way through the crowd of people and glomped my best friend. "You did it! You guys saved us!"

She laughed. "Are you sure you want to be hugging me right now? I'm covered in Uruk-Hai blood and probably smell like a dying animal."

"Oh, screw that. You guys are alive. That's all that matters to me."

"About that..." Here she suddenly pulled out of the hug and looked me right in the eye, lowering her voice. "...Haldir didn't make it. I want to talk to you about that later today."

I gasped. "Oh no...Erin, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"Later," she repeated.

I got the memo and dropped the subject. Just then, I noticed another best friend of mine that I hadn't seen in forever nearby, and I grinned. "Éomer!" I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth. The horse-lord looked up, and I waved him over. Once he was within range, I glomped him too. "Thank God you're still alive! I haven't seen you in months!"

He laughed and returned the hug. "I missed you too, Kathryn. Have you broken anything else in Meduseld since I've been gone?"

I shrugged. "Probably." We both laughed.

Erin suddenly put a hand on Éomer's shoulder and smiled at him. "Hey, thanks for coming and helping us. You guys were exactly what we needed."

"No problem at all," he replied. "However, you should thank Gandalf as well. He was the one who made us aware of the battle in the first place."

"I will," she said with a nod. She made to walk away, but Éomer stopped her.

"Wait...have we met before?" he asked, looking her over?

Erin nodded. "Yeah. I'm Erin, the girl who was with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli when you met us just after killing the party of Uruk-Hai on the borders of Fangorn. You gave me these." She gestured to Kaia's twin black blades on her hips.

Éomer recognized them immediately. "Ah, yes...Erin. I do remember you." He then frowned a bit once he saw how dirty and gross she looked. "You fought in battle?"

"I do it all the time," she said. "Don't worry about it."

He chuckled a bit. "You remind me somewhat of my sister. Speaking of which, where is Éowyn?" Éomer glanced back at me.

I shrugged. "I have no clue. Last I saw, she was with Aragorn."

He nodded, then looked at both of us. "Well, if you two ladies would excuse me, I have to go find my sister. Farewell." With that, he slipped off, leaving Erin and I on our own.

She looked over at me. "Hey Kathryn?"

"Yeah?"

"Where can I take a bath and stuff? I feel disgusting."

I smiled. "You're sharing a room with me. Come on." I grabbed her arm, pulling her through the crowd. "Let's get you cleaned up."

oOo

Kaia's POV

I landed in the water right after Pippin with a _splash _and gasped. "My God! It's freezing!" The ice-cold waters of the river rose up to Pippin's hips and the middle of my thighs. It wasn't that deep, it was just...really, _really _cold. I walked over to where my hobbit friend stood, surveying the area around us.

The destruction of Isengard had been completed. Once the tree-people (who I now knew were the Ents that Erin had talked about before) had unleashed the raging river on everything, there really hadn't been much left that needed to be done. Grima was already dead, and Saruman was retreating into his tower, which was now being closely guarded by several Ents.

By now, Pip and I had told our stories of adventure over the past several months to each other, so we were kind of just waiting around for Treebeard to give us something to do. I stepped up behind the hobbit, watching Saruman slam his balcony doors shut. "Sucks to be him," I commented.

Pippin nodded. "I don't suppose he'll be getting out of there anytime soon." The way he said it was so casual and nonchalant...it was kind of funny, actually.

"Probably not. But at least everything's okay now since he's trapped up there."

At this, he sighed sadly, sounding depressed. "No it's not. I'm starving."

Now normally, I would've said 'What the hell, Pippin? You just helped defeat a level nine-hundred-ninety-nine wizard, and the first thing you say is 'I'm hungry?'' But honestly...so was I. "Me too. Man, there's gotta be food around here somewhere..." I looked around, raising my eyebrows as I spotted a ripe red apple floating in the water nearby.

Pippin found one too, and he picked it up, briefly glancing at the sky in confusion. We gave each other excited looks, then turned around and started following a trail of floating food through the ruins. The farther we went, the more we found. I gathered a bunch more apples, and Pippin picked up an entire damn chicken! I was staring down at the fresh fruit in my arms, so wrapped up in it that I almost walked right into Pip when he stopped. I looked up just like he was doing, and all the apples instantly dropped from my arms. "...Oh, sweet baby Jesus..."

In front of us was a big stone building that just so happened to be Saruman's food cellar. Just about every type of edible food you could think of was in there, crammed together. Pippin looked like a five-year-old in Disneyland, and I just about cried when I saw fully cured and cooked meat hanging from the ceiling.

All of a sudden, the little hobbit gasped and dropped his chicken, running over to one of side of the flooded room and climbing up the shelves to where two large barrels labeled 'Southfarthing' sat. "Is it really?..." He had the biggest grin on his face when he popped the lid off. "It is! Old Toby!"

I frowned. "The fuck? What are you talking about?"

"Old Toby!" he repeated, pulling out his pipe. "The finest weed in all the Shire!"

"Oh." I rolled my eyes, still smiling. "Well while you're over there smoking to your heart's content..." I walked across the room, jumped up, and grabbed a fresh chicken from the ceiling. "...This chicken and I are gonna get to know each other _real _well." I tore into it immediately, having a minor foodgasm. "So...good!" I mumbled with a mouth full of meat. It soon fell silent in the room as the two of us absolutely ransacked the place, eating until our insides exploded.

oOo

Erin's POV

Later that night, Kathryn and I were both sitting on her bed. Mine was on the opposite wall, with all my weapons and stuff casually strewn across the covers. We'd both bathed and were now in lightweight nightgowns that had been provided for us.

"So," Kathryn started, "what did you want to tell me?"

I sighed and looked away for a second, thinking. "I...I don't know what's going on. I'm confused."

"Confused about what?"

I looked back at her. "I just...I don't feel as crushed by Haldir's death as I thought I'd be. Don't get me wrong, I'm still really sad and all, but..." I bit my lip. "...I just feel like I should be reacting differently." In all honesty, I wasn't exactly sure how to explain it. Yes, it hurt to know that my boyfriend had just died. Yes, I'd spent time crying about it (I'd bawled my eyes out when I was alone in the bathroom). But despite all that, I still felt like I wasn't sad enough...or something.

Kathryn looked kind of confused, too. "Well...maybe it just won't hit you until later, you know? Like...you haven't completely realized that he's gone yet."

I thought about that. "Maybe...but still. I feel like that's not it, either. I already know that he's gone. I know that he's not coming back. Haldir is dead. Forever. Permanently." I played with my necklace, which I still wore. "It just doesn't make any sense!"

Kathryn seemed to think about that for awhile. "...Maybe you...just didn't love him like you thought you did."

"What?" I looked at her, frowning. "What are you talking about?"

"Erin, think," she replied. "Just because he was your boyfriend doesn't automatically make you two soul mates. That's a belief you've had for years."

"I know, but..." I was at a loss for words. _She's being serious..._I looked to my necklace.

"Erin, answer this for me," Kathryn said. "Did you really, honestly, truly and sincerely _love _Haldir? Does it really feel like you were meant to be together forever?"

I didn't answer for awhile, deep in thought. _Did I ever really love him? Yeah, we dated for like, half a year, but...not once did we ever say to each other 'I love you.' Never. He made that promise to me when we first became a couple. That he would always be honest and sincere with me. I said the same thing to him. So...does that mean we never really loved each other? Can I really envision myself spending the rest of my life with him? I did seriously like him as a boyfriend, but..._

"...No," I finally said out loud. "No...I didn't love him. I cared for him deeply as a boyfriend, but nothing more." It felt to weird to say it, but...deep in my heart, I knew that it was the truth. I'd never legitimately loved Haldir.

My best friend nodded beside me. "Then that's probably it. His loss affects you like that of a close friend, but that's all."

I let that sink in for a bit. "I...I guess so." I thought of something at the moment and mentally winced. "I wonder if he truly did love me, though, and just never said anything."

Kathryn gave me a look of pity. "As blunt as this sounds...we'll never find out. Not the most positive thing to say, but...you know."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess." A minute later, I looked around the room and yawned. "Well, I guess we should probably go to bed. I, at least, am pretty frikin' tired."

"Obviously," Kathryn said, returning to her normal happier tone. "You just fought against ten thousand Uruk-Hai all night."

I smiled a bit. "Yeah." With our little conversation in mind, I stood up and went over to my own bed, quickly pushing all of my other stuff onto the floor and sliding under the sheets, getting comfy. "Good night, Kathryn."

"Night!" She blew out the last of the lit candles in our room, letting darkness swallow us completely as I fell into a dreamless sleep.

oOo

Three days later, our company (which consisted of Théoden, Éomer, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, and myself) appeared at the top of the hill that hid Helm's Deep from the eyes of the rest of the world. We were all on horseback, and I was on the end of our little line, next to Aragorn. We were heading out to Isengard, about a week or so away from here. Kathryn had decided to stay behind with Éowyn and the others, who were also set out to leave that day and return to Edoras. We would meet them there after a little chat with Saruman.

As our small group paused and looked out ahead, it was easy to see the fiery glow of Mount Doom far out on the horizon amidst black clouds, signaling where Mordor was. Gandalf spoke up from his seat atop Shadowfax, his words foreshadowing the events to come. "Sauron's wrath with be terrible; his retribution swift." I stared out at the land of shadow along with everyone else as the old wizard said his epic line, smiling the tiniest bit.

"The Battle for Helm's Deep is over...The Battle for Middle-Earth is about to begin." I thought about what was ahead for me yet. I still hadn't found Kaia, and I still didn't know how the lack of Merry could affect Middle-Earth's fate. "All our hope now lies with two little hobbits...somewhere in the wilderness."

There was a brief moment of silence as we thought about Frodo and Sam until Théoden spoke up. "For now, we must make haste and ride to Isengard. We have little time to spare." The king of Rohan nudged his horse forward, and the rest of us soon followed after as we started down the hill.

_Everything's starting to come to a close,_ I thought to myself. _Hopefully we can all make it through these final stages alive, especially my friends and I. But honestly...God knows what'll happen next. I know that I can't control Middle-Earth's fate anymore, so I guess it's best to just go with whatever happens and enjoy the ride whenever possible. _I glanced around at the rest of my friends, them smiled a tiny bit. _Here's to a new adventure._

**A/N: And with that, we've finished book three! :D Oh man...I can't believe it's almost over! D: That's depressing to think about. But I'm excited to start writing for RotK. :3 I should have the first chapter of that uploaded shortly, so keep your eyes peeled! And I can promise you this: the final book will definitely have a bunch of surprises. ;) Until then, and don't forget to review! *waves***

**~Erin**


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